Part of Your World
by caylender
Summary: Ever heard the story of the Little Mermaid? Well, you haven't heard this version. Our heroes aren't mermaids but actually mermen who are brothers; there's a cruel sea witch, an evil tyrannical king, and a very heroic princess. There's lots of action, adventure, and even a little romance. Or the fic where the Shield are mermen. You never knew you wanted to read something like this.
1. Prologue

**Caylender's AN:** This is something Captain and I have been working on since January. Yes, we are super cool people, and I swear we have lives. But we kind of forgot about his until yesterday, and we decided since we already have more than 40 single spaced pages on Google Docs already written, we should finish and post this.

I know, someone recently posted a Mermaid AU; it's completely coincidental. Make sure to check out _Goddess of the Deep_ by xXxRen3gadeQueeN23xXx in addition to this puppy. It looks compelling and well-written.

 **Part of Your World**

 _Prologue_

"Daddy, I don't want them to come over," complained the young girl as she began to break into a coughing fit once again which felt like the millionth time that day. "I want you to stay with me."

The little girl seemed to have come down with a nasty virus. It was going around her school and all the children were falling ill. Today was already the second day she had been home sick from school and tomorrow wasn't looking good for the little girl either.

Her father sighed as he straightened his tie and walked over to his daughter's bed handing her a cup of water and frowned. "You know your mama and I have had plans for this night for months. Plus, you love your uncles. What's come over you?"

The girl huffed in annoyance and rolled her eyes at her father. Her father raised an eyebrow unsure of where his daughter had learned such an awful tactic... probably from his brothers. He did want to stay with his daughter and not wear this monkey suit out in public. It was his night off, but his wife had been planning this date night for months, and if he backed out now, he was a dead man.

"But Daddy, they are so weird. One always talks about his hatred of clothes, and the other always wants me to practice my cartwheels. He has this idea in his head I'm going to be like you, but you all know I want to be a ballerina," explained the girl. "And they never want to do any girly things! Like tonight, all I want is a bedtime story, and I bet they don't even know any!"

The father patted his daughter's knee, "You'd be surprised about the stories your uncles know, darling. I'm sure you'll have a good time with them."

"Fine," groaned the girl. "But if they pinch my cheeks…"

The father shook his head at his daughter's antics. She was certainly something else when she was sick. He did feel for the little girl, but before he could get any further into the conversation with her, did his brothers burst through the door to his daughter's room.

The two tumbled through the doorway into the little girl's room.

"I swear, you forget how to walk sometimes," grumbled one of her uncles as he untangled his legs from the others. The other propped himself on his elbows shrugging innocently at his little brother and looking up at his niece from where he lay on the carpet, "Hi babygirl!"

"Brothers," greeted her father with a raised eyebrow at the two of them. "I left all the emergency numbers on the table downstairs and you both have my cellphone number. The poor girl isn't feeling well so take it easy on her. We'll be back around midnight if not later, probably."

"Okay Uce," one of them smirked grabbing her father's hand pushing him out of the bedroom, "We've got this! Now you and your lady go out on the town, have some fun, be crazy!"

"But not too crazy!" the younger one cautioned as he went to sit where her father had been sitting on the bed with her. "We'll see you when you get home."

Her father ran a hand through his hair and with one last glance gave in to letting his brothers look after his baby girl. Hopefully, they would go easy on her tonight he thought as he joined his wife at the bottom of the staircase walking out the door for their date night.

"They're gone," said her older uncle, smirking as he watched the lights from the car pull out of the driveway and head down the street. "So what do you want to do, kid? Paint the town red? Eat a ton of candy? Have your other uncle here teach you a bunch of wrestling moves?"

The girl sighed and rolled her eyes. "What I would like for you to do is tell me a story…"

"A story?" questioned her uncles in unison.

"Yes, a bedtime story," the girl said as she once again broke into a hard, wet cough as the younger uncle handed the little girl her glass of water. "A fairy tale."

The brothers exchanged a look the young girl didn't recognize before smiling at each other as if they knew a secret she didn't.

"We can do that quite easily, babygirl," the older uncle said with a smile as he sat on the opposite side of the girl as her younger uncle was sitting on.

"You can?" questioned the skeptical girl in confusion.

"We most certainly can, sweetheart," the young one said quickly perking up. "Have you ever heard the story of _The Little Mermaid_?"

The girl looked at her uncle's confused, "Yep, it's my favorite fairytale. I know it by heart!"

"Well darling, you haven't heard this version of the story," the older explained. "Our heroes aren't mermaids, but actually mermen who are brothers; there's a cruel sea witch who knows magic, an evil king, and a very heroic, yet independent princess. There's lots of action, adventure, and even a little romance."

The girl looked up at her uncle's intrigued by what they were saying.

"Looks like we got somebody's interest," smirked one of her uncles.

"Hook, line, and sinker," stated the other. "So where should we start?"

The other man snapped his fingers and smirked at the little girl once again, "Once upon a time, there was a secret underwater kingdom. Unfortunately this underwater kingdom wasn't a utopia as you might like to imagine it. It was ruled with an iron (abet slightly rusted since its underwater) fist of the Great King of Kings, King Triple H…"

 **Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta**

Once upon a time, there was a secret underwater kingdom. Unfortunately this underwater kingdom wasn't a utopia as you might like to imagine it. It was ruled with an iron (abet slightly rusted since it's underwater) fist of the Great King of Kings, King Triple H.

Everyone that inhabited the kingdom was under his control and lacked a basic level of free will. He achieved this level of control with the help of magic.

Every so often, an inhabitant would find the fancy to rebel and attempt to jump ship. This happened fairly recently with a Pacific Beardfish by the name of Daniel Bryan; however, with the assistance of some underhanded tactics, the threat was readily eliminated.

However, there were still rumors that floated around the kingdom. Some would swear that if you approached Stephanie and asked for the Sea Witch's assistance, she would grant you the ability to walk on the surface world, freely. Another rumor that surfaced after Edge and Christian had disappeared was that the two had gone to her and in exchange for something valuable, they had their freedom…

That was the bottom of the problem though. Nothing was free. No one knew what was to be sacrificed, so not many were willing to gamble.

But really, our story begins in this kingdom with one particular merman, Dean Ambrose and his brothers…

 **Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta**

 **Caylender's AN** :Ironically, Captain and I have been working on this thing for about 7 months on and off. It stems from Captain complaining that her work only had sporks, which naturally lead us to speculate her work was afraid to give the employees real forks in case someone would stab someone- Jon Moxley style. This of course leads to a conversation about Dean holding a fork like Ariel in the Little Mermaid, singing Part of Your World with Roman and Seth as Flounder and Sebastian in the background. Then I wrote the beginning story part, the "once upon a time" segment as a method to try to deter Captain away from the idea. However, she ended up loving what I wrote, and I had so much fun writing it. I mean, can you say bad puns? I know I can make a ton of them! And then we decided to collaborate and write this puppy. So yeah...What you've all probably never wanted to read: Mermaid Shield. You're welcome. ;D

 **Another Caylender's** **AN because holy crud she is very chatty today:** So A) if you liked the beginning, B) if you're intrigued by what you've read, C) if you just realized the world needs more Shield AUs, D) you're reading this while you wait for the Pokemon Stop to refresh, E) if you absolutely hate it, F) if you like eating fish tacos whenever you get the chance, you should most definitely tell us in a review! Tell me and Captain what you think!


	2. Human Stuff

**Caylender's AN:** Captain and Caylender are horrible people and should be publicly tar and feathered. _Captain: Hey! No, that's so violent!_ Caylender: Wait...I take that back since that sounds awful. Good point Captain. It is kind of my fault this is late since my brain is a sea slug and refuses to cooperate with my writer's soul. _Captain: Nice pun and nice cheese._ Caylender: Yup, and you can't teach that.

Without further ado, here is the first official chapter. Yay!

 **Chapter 1: Human Stuff**

"You know how creepy you're being right now?" Roman's deep voice broke Dean out of his revere.

Dean shook his head. "What?'

Roman grinned. "I don't know if it's just in our culture, but I think that this stalking thing is weird."

Dean rolled his eyes. "It's not stalking if she's coming to me. How can I stalk her if I can't follow her?"

Seth swam up to his brothers. "That's the problem, man. Every time that princess takes a ship out, you spend the entire time gazing up at her, dreamily. No offense, Dean, but you're torturing yourself here."

Dean shrugged. "I don't see any harm with it. It's not like I'll actually do anything…"

Roman grinned over at Seth. "I think Dean's in love."

Dean glared at him. "I'm not in love. It's just that something just feels right about her."

Roman threw an arm around Dean's shoulders. "We don't judge, brother. We're just here to keep you company and keep you out of trouble."

Seth poked Dean's side. "Or to save you from being caught in a big net…Whichever is more crucial."

Dean scowled. "That was only once, and it wasn't even my fault."

"Sure, sure," Seth said, condescendingly.

Roman just smiled in a pacifying way.

"I'm serious. It was just that it was dark and I had that stupid cough and- Wait. What's that over there?"

"What?"

"Over there!" Dean said as he darted away, swimming furiously.

"Dean!" Seth called after him as he took off after his brother, leaving Roman to sigh and half-heartedly follow after the two. It wasn't like he wasn't concerned about his brothers; he just didn't feel like it was necessary to always be in such a stinking hurry all the time.

"Neptune! Look at this! Look at this _thing_!" Dean shouted waving something around in the water.

" _What_ is _that_?" Seth asked; his brow was furrowed in confusion.

"I don't know! But it's awesome!"

Roman finally caught up to the two, and he was in the midst of wondering why he didn't always have some seaweed tied around his brothers' tails. It would be so much easier to keep track of them that way.

"Let me see already! Hold it still a minute!"

Dean stopped waving the object around and presented it to his brothers, wearing a proud smirk. "Ta freaking da"

It was a relatively small object, slightly longer than Dean's hand and metallic. It had a narrow handle that stretched into four skinny prongs on the opposite end from the handle.

"Huh," Roman said as he mused, trying to figure out the purpose of such a strange object. "That is pretty cool. But what the heck is it for?"

Seth smiled mischievously. "You don't know?"

Roman peered closer and shrugged. "Maybe humans stick it in their hair to keep it in place."

Dean smiled dreamily. "I bet it belongs to _her_."

"Yeah? And what would she use it for, Deano?"

"I don't know. Maybe she uses it to scratch her back. Or scrape algae off of walls or something..."

Roman wrinkled his nose. "That's not really an attractive mental image, Dean. I think imagining it as a hair ornament is better."

"Who cares? All that matters is it might have been in her own fins …"

"It's a fork, you dorks."

Roman grimaced. "Cool it with the swears, Seth. There's no reason to call us _that_. And what's a fork?"

"Sorry," Seth said. "That was rude of me. A fork is something the humans use to eat. You stab things with the pokey end."

Dean nodded in approval. "Stabbing things, huh?"

"Food things, Dean. Nothing living."

Dean pouted. "Fine, let's get this back to the Grotto, so Triple H doesn't see us with it."

"Yeah, that's the last thing we'd need," Roman said, softly.

Seth wrinkled his nose and said as they swam away from the ship and the open waters, "that guy gives me the creeps. I know I shouldn't say crap like that, but I don't like how fixated he is on us. It's not normal."

As the three made their way to the hidden grotto, they didn't notice the sleuthing stingray that was following them. When they reached the hidden entrance, they carefully entered, and the stingray smirked. Triple H would love to hear about this.

Dean quickly swam over to his corner and proudly placed his newly acquired fork on the candelabra to display it properly.

"Doesn't it look great in my collection?" Dean asked with a big grin.

Roman and Seth admired the shining fork that perched on the candelabra with a knife, a spoon, and several other rusty forks.

"Yeah, looks great! It fits right in with the others!"

"I like it," Roman said, simply.

Seth swam over to his personal collection of musical instruments. He reverently touched a trombone. "I really wish I could find someone who can play one of these. How cool would it be to actually hear what it sounds like on the Surface World? Air makes a huge difference to how they actually sound. At least that's what I've come to believe. I could be wrong though."

"It can't sound all that different," Roman said with a shrug.

"Yeah, it can! They don't make any sounds underwater!"

Roman frowned and carefully picked up one of his dozens of hairbrushes. "I wonder if these work any differently on the surface." He shrugged and carefully brushed his hair.

Dean sighed and glanced at his brothers. "Well, should we head back? We don't want to raise any red flags."

Seth nodded. "We should. Last thing we need is Hunter becoming suspicious."

The three brothers swam out of the grotto, and Dean glanced back at his new fork, longing to find the Princess, so he could be part of her world, too.

* * *

Please, take the time to write a lovely review and tell us all your hopes and dreams...or what you thought about this update or the fic in general.


	3. I Want the Good Times Back Part I

**Captain's AN:** Caylendar is off traveling across the country so she left me to my own devices and it just so happened I finalized the next chapter for this story. Thanks for the awesome reviews on the last chapter, we really enjoy reading everyone's feedback!

Anyway, let's go with the next chapter! Enjoy!

 **Chapter 2: I Want The Good Times Back Part I (Triple H Interlude)**

The underwater kingdom wasn't always ruled by the dictatorship of Triple H. Long, long, long ago, Hunter was actually one of the kindest mermen around, but one day something changed in him. Some say it was the day King McMahon was murdered while others argued it was the day Shawn Michaels disappeared from the underwater realm altogether. However, those who knew the truth, knew those two days were one in the same.

Ever since Shawn and Hunter were young mermen, they had been the best of friends. Together they brought joy and laughter to the many merfolk of Atlantis with their antics and jokes as they swam about the kingdom. The two best friends were inseparable… at least according to the gossiping gar was what everyone in the underwater kingdom believed until Hunter met Stephanie.

Hunter was a rebellious young merman, but once he laid eyes on Princess Stephanie, he knew he had to have her. She was the most beautiful mermaid in all of the seven seas. Her beauty radiated all throughout the oceans. In his heart of hearts, Hunter knew she could never be his, for she was royalty and he was nothing more than just your average merman. Lucky enough for him, Shawn was in the elite royal guard of King McMahon's court.

Shawn, being the good hearted soul he was, introduced the two merpeople to each other at one of the royal functions. Immediately, Stephanie was smitten with Hunter. However, Hunter began to crave more than just Stephanie's love, he needed to have power. If only Shawn had known that he had just signed the seal to Atlantis' ultimate demise.

Once Hunter met Stephanie, Shawn felt completely removed from his best friend. He was constantly feeling like a third fin. Slowly, the two best friends were starting to drift apart from each other. To clear his mind from these thoughts, the young merman would often go up to the surface world to lie on the beach and mull over his problems.

That was when Shawn fell in love with the surface world. He loved watching the humans run, dance and skip. He loved watching them run on the beach wiggling their toes in the sand. He loved watching the human couples dance. He loved watching the children skip, hand in hand around on the grassy knolls. He loved watching the humans play with their trinkets. He wondered how they figured out how these things worked. He loved everything about the human world. He wanted to join them, at least up here he would feel like he belonged.

The sea had nothing left to give him. His best friend was too busy wooing the fins off the girl of his dreams (and trying to gain the crown, but Shawn didn't know that). There was peace in the the underwater utopia, so there wasn't really a need for an elite guard soldier like himself, right now.

This would be the perfect time to escape to the surface world.

How would he do such a feat?

No one had gone to the surface world before and walked on land, but he knew there was a way. There had to be a way. The old scrolls in the castle talked about ancient magic which could grant such a wish. But what sorcerer or sorceress would do such a thing?

Then he realized Stephanie was practicing magic as part of her training to become the next Queen of Atlantis. Surely, she could make his wish of being human come true. She was the key to getting his wish fulfilled and living his dream.

However, if Shawn wouldn't have been plotting to escape the sea, he would have seen the transformation that was happening to his best friend.

Hunter couldn't stand King McMahon berating him. The old codger reluctantly accepted his pleas to marry Stephanie, once he had proposed Stephanie and expected McMahon to give make him the crown of Atlantis immediately. For some reason though, Vince saw something in Hunter many others did not.

What the king saw would make any merperson scream with fear because the young man had an heart brimming with darkness and evil intentions. A heart overfilled with hatred, jealousy, anger, no one like that should rule the kingdom of Atlantis in King McMahon's opinion.

King McMahon vowed to himself as long as he was alive Hunter would not be allowed to marry Stephanie, unluckily for him, Hunter overheard the old fool's muttering to himself about this issue. The young merman decided if the old codger wasn't going to give him what he wanted then, he'd just take Stephanie and the crown for himself.

On a dreary night under the sea, Hunter snuck into the King's chambers with a plan, a killer one at that. It just so happened luck was on his side making him the only merperson in the chambers for the evening. He had grabbed some poison from Stephanie's potion collection and quietly poured a deadly dosage over the King's coral salad. Happily Hunter served the delicious yet deadly delicacy to the king and within minutes the man toppled over in his arms… dead.

"This will teach you, you old fool," cackled Hunter, "I will rule Atlantis and there won't be a damn thing you can do about it. Stephanie and I will be together forever… Plus I was the only one here to witness your murder and you know what that means… you named me your successor and gave me permission to finally marry Stephanie!

"I guess you could say I win!" Triple H smiled slimy before transforming his slick talk into soberly somber sad shouting, "SOMEONE HELP! THE KING! HE'S BEEN POISONED! HELP! PLEASE, HELP!"

Not far from King McMahon's chambers, Shawn was pleading his own case to Stephanie. The day Shawn Michaels asked Stephanie for this favor would go down in Atlantean history as one of the worst ever. Hunter's heart had already become pure black after committing King McMahon's murder, but Stephanie was about to lose something too on this day. Her beauty would turn into gruesome tendrils of hate causing her to become a monster and Atlantis would no longer be the beautiful utopian society it had once been.

"I'm sorry, Shawn, but magic like that comes at a very steep price," Stephanie attempted to reason with the merman after listening to him plead his case about her practicing a spell to turn him human, "Nothing is free when it comes to magic, especially a dark spell like the one you are asking me to cast."

Shawn looked down at his tail defeated by the young mermaid's response. He could just accept this and leave, but that wasn't the way of Shawn Michaels. No, if he wanted something he would go after it full bore, no ifs, ands, or buts.

"You've taken everything from me! My best friend has no time for me because of you and his trying to woo your father to give his blessing to gain your hand in marriage. I'm no longer wanted here under the sea. Just let me have this! No, I demand you give me this, you worthless excuse for a mermaid! You're not a real sorceress, you're just some little mermaid parading around to be one!"

Stephanie growled angrily at Shawn. How dare he call her a little mermaid… and worthless?! Did he not know his rightful place in the kingdom, he should bow to her! She had powers that would make merbabies cry in their sleep! No, she certainly was not worthless. As Shawn began to swim away, Stephanie quickly shouted after him.

"Fine, I'll do it… under one condition!" Stephanie shouted as she raised her perfectly manicured hand to Shawn as he swiveled around quickly to look at her.

"Name your price," Shawn answered confidently.

"When I turn you human, you never return to the sea… ever. No walking on the beach. No sailing out on the ocean. None of that. You can never come back here, do you hear me? Oh, and one other thing, you never speak word of this to Hunter. Understood?"

"Why?" questioned Shawn confused about why he had to give up his underwater home.

"Because every magic spell has a price and you must barter something. You will barter away your friendship with Hunter and home if you want to walk on land that desperately."

Shawn nodded his head in understanding. Sure, so what if he could never come home again? No one would miss him anyway. No one would know he was gone. He wanted to be where the people were because flipping his fins certainly wasn't getting him very far.

"I understand," answered the merman aloud acknowledging Stephanie's request.

"I hope you do," Stephanie sighed, "What we are about to do will send ripples through the ocean for years to come. Nothing is free, Shawn and I hope you are willing to the pay the price."

And so, Stephanie transformed Shawn that night and he swam with his human legs up to the surface world to never be seen or heard from again by the residents of Atlantis. Shawn got his happily ever after by going to be part of the surface world, but at the price of never returning home or seeing his best friend again.

When Stephanie arrived home late that evening, she found the whole kingdom in mourning over her father's assassination. Hunter consoled her and told her of how an evil fiend had poisoned the great King McMahon. He also told her of how with the king's dying breath Hunter had been given the crown and blessing to rule the kingdom. Stephanie nodding in understanding as she hung her head in mourning with Hunter's strong arms grasped around her, if only she knew what the mad merman had done to her father.

The kingdom mourned for the loss of their king, but soon enough Hunter and Stephanie were wed. Immediately following their wedding day, Hunter's coronation to become King of Atlantis took place. Shortly thereafter, the King of Kings learned of what had happened to Shawn Michaels.

Once Hunter learned of Shawn becoming a two legged freak (because no one in all of Atlantis could keep a secret), did the King of the Oceans vow his hatred toward everything human. From that day forward, he ruled the seven seas with iron fist and tyranny. Any merperson caught trying to leave Atlantis would be severely punished. Any merperson caught going to the surface would be drafted and forced to join the elite royal guard. Any merperson who had anything to do with humans whatsoever would be forced to be Hunter's own personal slave in the elite guard.

Meanwhile, after learning of Stephanie's deceit, Triple H had cast his once loved aside. He told her if she ever wanted his love again, the woman would have to learn how to change humans back into merpeople and bring Shawn back to the ocean. Until then, she was forever banished from Atlantis and forced to live out her days in the wastelands of the ocean. Before she left Atlantis, however, she gave Triple H one last gift. A gift that would showcase to his royal subjects the true monster he was.

Stephanie cursed Triple H to look as putrid on the outside as he was on the inside. His eyes were replaced with a ghastly red glow. His skin popped around the top of his skull while his skin also took on an unholy dark purple appearance. His arms grew to have dark wings attached to them while his tail became more like a stinger than a merpersons. The King of Kings was now more stingray than merman. An appearance befitting his black heart in Stephanie's opinion.

Triple H's hate filled heart darkened the waters of Atlantis from that day forward and no amount of uprisings the merpeople attempted could ever stop his tyranny.

However, under Triple H's steady influence, Stephanie's existence had become that of a legend to the merpeople. Only a few who dared defy Triple H's laws and willingly sought out the wasteland where she had taken up her exile knew of her existence.

Stephanie's story though is a whole another chapter in itself.


	4. The World Above

**Captain's AN:** Captain and caylendar are in a rousing game of phone tag as the latter settles into her new home on the other side of the country, but while we try and figure out this conundrum, you can all enjoy the next chapter (this happens to be my personal favorite, for many, many reasons!).

Also captain has a major problem because she loves this fic way too much, she has Little Mermaid Jamberry nails and is reading a book about mermaids. Yep, captain has way too much of an obsession with this fanfic.

Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter! It's really flattering to know we are doing the story absolute justice both the Disney and Hans Christian Anderson versions. Anyways, without further ado, let's dive into the next part of our story!

 **Chapter 3: The World Above**

While the Shield brothers swam around together under the sea trying to evade Triple H's laws, another predicament was brewing up not far away from them on the surface of the ocean involving a very young, independent and strong willed princess.

"Your highness! Get down from there this instant! Being up in the sails swinging about is no place for a Princess," shouted one of her royal advisors, "Why on earth did I ever promise your father I would look out for you after he passed?"

The princess rolled her vibrant brown eyes as she grabbed one of the ropes and swung onto the starboard of the ship, her boots clicking and clacking as she hit the deck. Her short auburn hair fell over her shoulders. She was dressed in a light petticoat with dress pants and boots going up to her knees. Leave it to Christian, her royal advisor, to think he knew what was best for her, especially these days. The young woman sighed as she planted her feet firmly on the ground.

"We should think about going back to court, your highness," Christian tried to advise her once more, "Your suitors are probably all wondering where you have been."

"The reason I came out here, Christian, was to get away from those idiots," Princess Sonia stated firmly as she walked over to the steering wheel of the ship dismissing the crew member who was doing the duty and taking the position at the helm, "They don't want love, all they want is my power! 'Oh to be King of Excalibur,' they say, 'We will rule the seven seas trading market easily if we marry the late King's daughter. It will be so easy!' I know those nimrods; they think I'm a prize to be won, well guess what? I'm not! I have the same rights as them, and I am a better leader than all of them combined!"

It was a very little known fact the Kingdom of Excalibur did rule the seven seas trading market. Some people said it was a monopoly, but since the late King had fallen ill the economy had declined. The princess had been trying to do everything possible to make sure she kept her people calm and everything positive going forward. However, as time passed the king become more ill causing the kingdom to tumble into chaos.

With King Foley's last breath, he made his daughter agree to find a royal suitor to marry by her 21st birthday. King Foley knew Sonia would do him proud, but having a king would calm the kingdom. With less than four days left until her birthday, Sonia had run away from her responsibilities to the open ocean not wanting to be surrounded by pretentious princes parading around her. Sonia craved freedom and to not to be caged in a castle or held by the bonds of society that wanted her to be the Queen.

Christian huffed in frustration as he put a gentle hand on the Princess's shoulder. He could feel the intensity of her anger radiating off her. But the Princess had inherited not just her Father's kingdom, but also his stubbornness. This was one of the reasons Christian thought he did not get paid enough and wanted to ask the royal executives for a raise.

Christian and Edge, the other royal advisor of the Princess, had taken up the positions of king for now, but the within the next few days the Princess was to turn 21 and if she not have a suitor by then chaos would surely overrun the kingdom. There were rumors swirling about an invasion from the north. The Norther kingdom ruled by the unruly King Kevin Owens wanted to take Excalibur for it's own. Surely, Owens would force Princess Sonia into marriage leaving chaos in his wake while destroying the kingdom in the process too.

"You can't run away from this forever, my dear," Christian tried to reason with her as he followed her about the ship, "The suitors have come from kingdoms far and wide to meet you. Prince John Cena is dashing, strong, and will fight any battle you need him to. While Prince CM Punk is a very strong leader giving his people a voice for the voiceless in his kingdom. And Prince Dolph Ziggler has a heart of gold."

The Princess rolled her eyes as she moved from the helm to gaze out over the railing into the vast wide ocean propping out her elbow resting her chin on her hand, "What kind of name is Dolph, anyway? And each of them has their flaws Christian. I listen to you and Edge while you gossip behind me in the royal court, you know. Oh, the things I have heard from the two of you over the years! Cena is a goody-goody who is just after my power and has true commitment issues. CM Punk is essentially what his name calls him, a punk who likes to hear himself talk and won't show up when you need him most. And Dolph, gah! I hate him, he's such an arrogant, narcissistic prick! Why can't I just marry myself?"

"Edge and I really need to be quiet," muttered Christian under his breath as he joined his charge at the side of the ship, "Sonia, you can't avoid this forever, you know that."

"But Christian," sighed Sonia as she looked out over the ocean dreamily, "I love being out on the ocean. I don't want to be cooped up in the castle for the rest of my life and just be a seen when my husband needs me or just to produce babies so Excalibur can have another royal heir. I want to be able to be out here and feel the fresh sea air hitting my face. I want to rule the kingdom my way while still having adventure! Until that happens, I will avoid the castle for as long as I possibly can."

Christian smiled at the young princess knowing she had her mother's heart and her father's will. With the two characteristics of them combined, the young woman was sure to be a noble leader, but she couldn't be that leader if she wasn't married.

"Princess," Christian tried to reason again while running a hand through his long blonde locks, "You know as well as I do we have to go back to court. If not for finding a suitor for you, but so we can prepare for your birthday celebration."

The princess shook her head not wanting to even think about going back to court. Sonia knew how Christian worked and this was just one of his many schemes. If the royal advisor hadn't been keeping such a close eye on her, she would have jumped overboard by now swimming as far as she possibly could. The blue waves bobbed up and down in the ocean while smacking the deck as Sonia longingly gazed out at the open ocean.

The princess looked over the railing catching the glimpse of something bobbing up and down in the water a few feet away from their ship. The figure seemed to be staring right at her. Sonia raised an eyebrow squinting at the figure while piercing her lips together in wonder. If the young woman didn't know any better, she could have sworn that was a person out there in the ocean. That didn't make sense, no human could be out here in the middle of the ocean or could possibly swim that far from the shore. With a perplexed look of confusion the Princess turned back toward Christian.

"Did you see that?" questioned the young woman as she turned to Christian then back to the spot where she had seen the figure in the water and saw the figure was now gone, "I swear I saw something…"

"Your Highness, I think you're seeing things or have inhaled way too much sea salt," Christian sighed as he began to lead the Princess away from the railing of the ship not wanting her to jump over board. The royal advisor wouldn't have put it against the young woman to swim away from her problems.

"I swear, Christian, there was something out there!" Sonia chided as she looked back over her shoulder into the open ocean while Christian yanked her away from the side of the boat.

It just so happened if the Princess would have looked down over the side of the ship as she was being yanked away she would have seen Dean Ambrose staring up enchanted by her. He had surfaced and saw the ship, but he wanted a closer look now. The young merman had never been this close to humans before, but he wanted to see the princess up close. Forks were great and all, but to meet this girl, this human girl, he would trade in his tail for any day. To have the freedom the Princess had and not be restricted by the rules of Triple H's undersea kingdom. Dean yearned for it, no, he craved to have a taste of the freedom the Princess had. If only, there were some way he could meet this Princess and walk on land with her...

"You idiot," Seth scolded as he smacked the back of his brother's head snapping Dean out of his revere, "You know we can't be up here on the surface! Twice in one day, Dean! Hunter and his goons are going to get suspicious and watch us like hawks! If we get caught, we can kiss whatever was left of our freedom goodbye!"

"Yea," Roman echoed as he popped up from under the sea to bob beside Seth, "Right by her ship, Dean, are you insane? If we get caught, Hunter will surely force us to join the elite royal guard and become his slaves!"

Ambrose innocently shrugged wanting the Princess to come back so he could catch a glimpse of her once more. She was so fierce from what he had overheard of her conversation. She intrigued him. It was as if Princess Sonia had cast a spell over him and he didn't know how to break it. The true kicker was the merman and princess could never be together, they were from two different worlds, one of land and one of sea. Dean sighed as he continued to try to will the Princess to come back, but was sadly disappointed when she didn't return to stare out into the ocean. Her royal advisor was probably keeping her as far away from him as possible on purpose.

"We should go before someone catches us," Seth said looking around worried one of the King's gang was going to pop out at any moment to ambush them, "Plus being this close to humans makes me nervous. You know how I feel about being caught in a net, guys."

"Can't we stay longer?" Dean whined quickly glancing at his brothers before turning his full attention back to the ship.

"Dean, what has gotten into you?" questioned Roman with a raised eyebrow, "What's got your tail in a twist that we can't swim home? Wait, this is a royal ship isn't it?"

"No," Dean attempted to lie, but Roman and Seth exchanged knowing looks before identical sly smirks crossed their faces. The blonde merman let out a huff of annoyance knowing his brothers knew him all too well, "I saw the ship from the Grotto and it just so happened the Princess was actually looking out into the ocean."

Seth gasped, "Please, dear Neptune, tell me she didn't see you?!"

"I don't know," Dean answered with a shrug, "It doesn't matter it's not like her and I will ever be together. We can't be human; she can't become a mermaid. We're from two separate worlds and I'm not willing to leave the two of you out here in the ocean all alone. I mean who will pick the seaweed out of Roman's hair or make sure you don't do anything stupid Seth."

Before more could be said between the brothers did the sky above fill with dark clouds, thunder rumbled across the sky just, and a lightening bolt grazed through the darkness causing the vibrant color of the sky and sun to disappear behind the storm clouds.

"We need to go," Seth said attempting to push Dean underwater with Roman's help but failing miserably since he the blonde did not want to budge, "Ugh, fine. I don't know why you want to stay up here and get drenched when we could get drenched at home under the ocean."

"Haven't you learned not to question him, little brother?" Roman asked as he stood behind Dean and Seth watching the human chaos unfold on the ship above them.

Dean's eyes watched the crew scrambled about as he saw the Princess once again. She was running to help the crewmen tie down any loose masts and supplies that lay on deck not wanting any of the ship's cargo to fall overboard and be lost in the sea forever.

"The sea king must be very angry!" shouted one of the crewmen as large waves began to wash over the deck, "He usually never causes a storm like this unless he's angry over something."

"Sea King?" questioned the Princess confused as she grabbed the end of the rope the crewman was handing her tightening it around the cargo box quickly, "What are you talking about, Tugboat?"

"The sea king is a legend. There's no such thing. It's an old fish tale parents tell their children" said Christian with a roll of his eyes as he tried not to be washed overboard by the massive waves, "Don't listen, Sonia, it's hogwash."

"Whatever you say, Christian," Tugboat said with chuckle as he ran over to help the rest of the crew, "Princess Sonia take the helm while I help the boys batten down the hatches!"

Sonia nodded her head swiftly in understanding and ran up the steps onto the deck grabbing the steering wheel while lightning continued to streak across the sky and thunder boomed in the background. The Princess kept a tight grip on the wheel as the waves crashed across the deck washing the crew all over the ship.

"Get the rigging on those sails tightened!" shouted Wade to his crewmen as they scrambled in a losing fight to battle against Mother Nature. It seemed Mother Nature was enjoying making puppets out of the crewmen as the wind and sea continued to throw them around.

Within minutes of Wade's shouting orders did the rigging above them snap from the sails, coming crashing down onto the deck and spinning about. Pieces of the loose sail wiped in the wind spinning around in circles as if performing a dance together that no one could copy. The loose rigging spun in the direction of the Princess slamming into her stomach knocking her clean off the deck. The young woman was thrown from the boat and off into the dark waters of the ocean.

"YOUR HIGHNESS!" shouted Tugboat as he quickly grabbed a life preserver throwing it out into the dark currents and waves, "The waves are too high. I can't see her anywhere, Christian!"

"SONIA!" cried Christian as he attempted to catch a glimpse of the Princess in the chaos. The royal advisor failed miserably though at trying to make out anything in the ocean waters as the hard rain pelted him in the face.

Before any of the mermen could get a word in edgewise, Dean was diving after the girl. He was going as fast as his fins could take him as he pushed through the underwater currents attempting to catch up with the Princess. He could sense Roman and Seth were hot on his tail wanting to save the young woman as well. Dean prayed silently to Poseidon that he would get there in time. The merman wasn't going to lose the Princess before he even got to actually meet her.

The princess tried to hold onto something that had been washed overboard with her, but every time her grip slipped as the hard rain pelted against her body causing it to become loose. She couldn't stop herself from slipping as she fell into the ocean beginning to sink to the bottom. She tried to swim back to the surface, but the current was too strong pulling her under. Her nostrils and eyes stung with salt filled seawater burning in pain. Her lungs desired fresh air, but instead were drowned in the ocean water.

Well if she was going to die, at least it was somewhere she loved. Sonia never envisioned this was how it would happen though, but on the bright side, she wouldn't have to marry one of those idiotic princes from a surrounding kingdom. She would be able to die alone in peace.

Before Sonia could think more about her death though, the darkness overwhelmed her.

Dean finally reached the young woman pulling her close to him as he grabbed her body placing her bridal style against his torso. As fast as his fins could carry him, he pushed himself back toward the surface; he didn't care he was touching a human or even breaking some of Hunter's oldest and most sacred rules. This girl needed his help, and he was going to give it to her. He had watched from afar so long this almost felt like a dream to him. He knew better though.

Roman and Seth, who had finally caught up, swam beside him as they rushed toward the shoreline of one of the local coves. As they washed up onto the shoreline with the Princess, the brothers tried to catch their breaths huffing and puffing from the exhaustion of the rescue.

"Was I too late?" questioned Dean sadly as the human girl wasn't making any sudden movement.

Seth and Roman exchanged a look unsure of what to tell their brother as the princess lay unmoving on the sandy beach. How could they tell their brother the human he had been pursuing for so long was now lost to him forever before he even had the opportunity to meet her?

"Wait," Dean said, and he perked up as he saw the young woman's chest begin to go up and down. "Look, she's breathing! She's alive!"

"PRINCESS SONIA!"

"Humans!" cried Seth as he quickly grabbed Dean's hand and began to yank him away from the Princess who lay on the sandy beach in a vibrant cove, "We have to go now! We can't be caught!"

The princess's eyes began to flutter open as she began to make out three male figures who were staring at her with desperate looks on their faces. One of them, a blonde with ocean blue eyes which shone with a look of longing and adoration, smiled down at her showcasing his dimples. Sonia wanted to ask him his name, but by the time she had blinked the man was gone.

As desperately as Dean wanted to stay he nodded towards his brothers diving beneath the ocean surface not wanting to be caught by the other humans. This time though, he was positive the Princess had seen his face when he had been staring down at her. Maybe there was hope for him to be part of her world after all?

Once the brothers were far enough away they broke to the surface once again, Dean stopped to peek out from where they hid behind a large rock. He wanted to truly make sure the Princess was truly alright. Seth and Roman were still bobbing up and down in the ocean trying to wrap their fins around what had just transpired.

"PRINCESS Sonia!" shouted Christian as he came racing up the beach to the girl as she slowly began to come to and make more sense of her surroundings.

"Take it easy, Sonia," cautioned her other royal advisor, Edge, as he joined Christian kneeling beside her. "How on earth did you get here? Fate must have been very kind to you, we thought we'd lost you to the ocean forever."

Sonia shook her head for a moment trying to clear out all the cobwebs, "There was a man... He got me here somehow. I don't know how, but he did and then he disappeared into the ocean. He had the bluest eyes, they were as beautiful as the ocean itself."

"Your highness, you must have hit your head on a rock after the shipwreck. Men just don't disappear into the ocean," Edge tried to reason with her as he helped her up. The Princess took both of her advisor's hands while trying to find her balance. They began to lead her back to the castle slowly, but cautiously wanting her to take as much time as she needed. She was going to need all the rest she could get after her experience.

With a parting glance she looked back out at the ocean once more saying a silent prayer up to the gods above while mouthing thank you back to the ocean for letting her continue to live.

A wide smirk encompassed Dean's face as he saw the Princess do this. His heart swelled three sizes larger than normal and he felt it flutter knowing in some sense Princess Sonia was essentially thanking him and his brothers for saving her. He etched the Princess's face into his mind not wanting to forget her or this whole experience.

This would be the moment Dean Ambrose vowed he would become part of Princess Sonia's world, someday, somehow, he would do it, he'd be part of her world starting right now.

As Dean bobbed back underwater with his brothers following close on his fins, they missed a sneaky stingray gliding about in the cove with a nasty smirk playing across its face. Randy Orton smirked all to happy to rat out the Shield brothers to his boss. Oh, when Orton went back to Triple H with the knowledge Ambrose, Reigns, and Rollins had been on the surface AND interacting with a human it was sure to cause Hunter's anger to come to a boil!

Those Shield boys would belong to Hunter soon enough and no one would be able to do anything about it. Once Hunter had those boys in his inner guard, their freedom and brotherhood would be dead permanently.


	5. Under the Sea

**Captain's AN: In honor of tonight being the second biggest PPV of the year and because the chapter is done too, here's the next chapter about the mermen. Enjoy! :)**

 **Chapter 4: Under the Sea**

The day turned into night, but Dean hadn't slept a wink. He had been too busy staring up at the surface of the ocean longingly imagining Princess Sonia and himself together just sitting on the beach, his tail outstretched into the ocean while she told him all about the surface world. Together they laughed and smiled while enjoying the beauty of the ocean. Oh, how he longed to be with her to be able to walk with her and chase her on the sand. He felt his heart flutter and his fins grow weak just thinking about her staring at his eyes.

"Come on Sleepy Fins! We've got something to show you!" Seth cried as Dean fell out of bed not realizing it was morning, and he had been dreaming of the Princess all night.

"Seth… it's too early for whatever it is," grumbled Dean and he picked himself up off the floor, "You know as well as I do that I am not a morning fish!"

"Well duh, but come on, you have got to see this!" Seth stated as he bobbed up and down with excited anticipation. "Roman is already at the Grotto with it!"

"With what?" questioned Dean in confusion and wondering how his little brother had gotten the oldest one out of bed.

"You'll see once we get there, now come on, let's go!" Seth said as he grabbed Dean's hand and swam as fast he could to the Grotto with Dean in tow.

Making it to the Grotto in record time, the brothers entered through the secret entrance to find Roman just lazily swishing his tail back and forth.

"Took ya long enough," grumbled the Samoan.

"It's not my fault lazy fins here wouldn't get out of bed," chided Seth right back at the merman.

Dean yawned and looked around the Grotto not seeing anything different. "Did you two fins for brains drag me out here for no reason or what?"

Seth and Roman both rolled their eyes as they swam over to the corner of the Grotto and pushed out what looked to be a box from the surface world. Dean stared at it in utter disbelief.

"Well, go on," stated Roman, "We didn't bring it all this way for you to just stare."

Dean swam over to the open container of the box and found it was everything he could ever want. There were gizmos and gadgets a plenty from the human world like forks, spoons, knives, any kitchen utensil you could possibly think of, but there was something else too. Slowly, he fished it out of the bottom of the crate.

A white head bust of the Princess was in his hands. Her face was just how he remembered it and her hair was a bit longer with more waves in it. Dean was sure if she had been a mermaid, she would have been the most beautiful one of them all. He was positive she was the most beautiful human he had laid his eyes on.

"So do you like it bro?" questioned Seth giddy about the treasures they had added to their trove.

"I… I… I don't know what to say," Dean said quietly as he looked up from the bust of the Princess and embraced his brothers in a hug of thanks.

"WHAT IN NEPTUNE'S NAME IS GOING ON HERE!"

Dean dropped the bust of the Princess, which dropped onto the sandy ocean bottom.

The brothers froze in fear and turned to see the King of the Ocean's standing on the opposite side of the Grotto from them staring straight into their souls. His two stringray henchmen, Orton and Batista, trailed closely behind him as he came closer to the brothers.

"I asked a question boys, and I expect an answer. Now would someone care to tell me what is going on here?" hissed Triple H, disgusted at seeing all these retched human things under the sea.

The Shield brothers remained silent as Triple H impatiently tapped his fingers on his royal trident. He rolled his eyes in annoyance and saw the youngest merman, Seth Rollins, slink behind his brothers in fear of the King. Ha, thought Hunter to himself, he should be afraid, very afraid.

After several more minutes of silence, Orton piped up, "They have been going to the surface world, your majesty and from the looks of it, collecting human things. You had your suspicions about this and asked me to keep a closer eye on Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns."

Seth couldn't believe it. He was the Architect; he should have known better than to think they weren't being watched by any Triple H's goons. He continued to internally berate himself as he hid behind Dean and Roman trying to avoid Triple H's creepy gaze.

"Awe it seems you're right Orton; Batista, do you know what that means?" spoke the King.

"It means these three have broken some of your oldest rules, your majesty."

"Tsk, tsk, and we can't have that, now can we boys? People breaking laws and going against the sanctions of their one true leader. We can't have a rebellion; we all know from the last one how that ended."

"Merpeople scattered all over the sea to never be heard or seen from again," Seth squeaked out as Triple H's gaze landed on him and stayed there for a very long time. Damn, the young merman had been trying to avoid that from happening.

"Very good, Mr. Rollins. You see boys, I can't have mermen like yourselves running amuck and breaking rules, it sets an awful example for the rest of the mer-community," answered Triple H. "So here's what we're going to do. At sundown tonight you will be forced into my elite royal guard. I think that's punishment enough, don't you Orton and Batista?"

The two stingrays thought for a second before Orton answered, "But Dean Ambrose interacted with a human, your majesty. He saved her from the watery grave she was falling into."

"Really? Well, it seems Mr. Ambrose will become my own personal slave in the my guard then. He will never see the rest of the ocean again."

"You can't do that!" shouted Roman.

"We won't let you!" added Seth.

"Oh you poor naive mermen, I do what I want and no one in all the seven seas has stopped, but if you are so desperate to join your brother then so be it. At sundown, Orton and Batista will come to collect you three, you will happily join the royal guard and we will get started with you serving out your sentences as my personal slaves for breaking the rules of Atlantis."

Triple H began to take his leave, but stopped short as he asked the stingrays, "I'm forgetting something aren't I?"

"The Grotto, your majesty filled with human things," answered Batista.

"Awe yes," answered Triple H. "Orton, Batista, would you please escort the Shield brothers out of here so I can take care of this awful place. We can't have this human garbage littering the ocean, now can we?"

The sting rays glided over circling the brothers as their poisonous electric tails zapped making sure there was no escape. The two hench fish lead the brothers out the entrance of the Grotto. Triple H followed closely behind them and once they were out of there he turned back to the place where all the awful human things remained.

In one foul swoop with his magic trident, Triple H destroyed the Grotto. Seth's instruments were completely obliterated. Roman's hair brushes were in shambles. Dean's utensils were unrecognizable.

"Well that takes care of that," answered Triple H confidently. "Orton, Batista, let's go! We will be seeing you boys at sundown tonight! I look forward to it!"

As the King of the Oceans and his hench fish left, the Shield brothers stared broken hearted at their destroyed treasures unsure of what to think, what to feel. Sure, they knew what they had been doing was wrong and against all form of Atlantean law, but it felt right, exploring the Surface World through the only way possible to them.

"Come on guys," said Roman taking the lead as he wrapped his arms around Seth and Dean, "Let's go home. We need to prepare for tonight. We can't stay here any more."

The trio swam off toward their home in Atlantis, heads hung low, not ready to give up what was left of their freedom and join Triple H's Elite Royal Guard just to become his own personal slaves.

Dean looked back at the Grotto to see pieces of debris floating down into the ocean sand. He had a sinking feeling this was only just the beginning of their problems.

 **Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta**

"You know, Triple H has always given me the creeps," Seth blurted out as soon as they made it back to their home.

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"I dunno what it is about him, but he gives me the impression that he's sizing me up like a piece of meat." Seth shuddered. "I hate it."

Roman clapped a hand onto Seth's shoulder. "Don't worry, brother; we're here with you."

Dean threw himself onto a chair and buried his head into his arms on the table. "So on a scale from one to ten, how screwed are we?"

Roman frowned at Dean. "We're not completely screwed yet… Right, Seth?"

"Well, we kinda are unless you're looking forward to joining Triple H's personal guard…" Seth screwed up his face in thought. "That is unless…"

"Unless?" Roman questioned.

Dean poked his head up from his arms. "Sounds like you got a plan for us."

Seth crossed his arms and gazed off into the distance, his mind a league away. "Plan might be too strong of a word for what I have…"

Dean and Roman exchanged looks before Dean prompted Seth, saying, " Well? What do you have?"

"Well," Seth said slowly. "Remember all those whispers a while back that Triple H's guys did a lot to hush up?"

Roman and Dean looked at each other again. Dean arched an eyebrow, and Roman shrugged. "No?"

Seth rolled his eyes. "They were all about a Sea Witch, who supposedly lives in that Chasm... Apparently she'll cut a deal with someone, help them out with her magic." Seth frowned. "Of course, they never actually said what she'd want in exchange, but she'll help you out. If the rumors are right, the great Edge and Christian came to an agreement with her that allowed them to…"

"To what?" Dean asked.

"To join the Surface."

Roman laughed. "That's impossible! No one can do that!"

Dean nodded in agreement, but he felt a flutter of excitement at the prospect.

Seth held up his hands in a pacifying gesture. "I'm not saying that I think it's a hundred percent true, but it might be worth the consideration… We could really solve all our problems if the rumors actually have merit."

Roman ran a hand through his long, flowing hair. "If we were on the Surface, they wouldn't be able to draft us into Triple H's league of cronies."

Seth shuddered at the thought. "Exactly, we can escape his fucking creepy gaze, but there's another benefit to this solution."

"Yeah?" Dean asked nonchalantly.

Seth smirked. "Yeah, someone's little princess who happens to walk on land and breathe air lives on the surface. It would be one step closer for you to actually be able to talk to her."

Dean scoffed. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Roman raised an eyebrow. "Is that so, bro? Cause you seemed pretty eager to meet her earlier…"

Dean blushed slightly. "Okay, fine! Maybe I am excited! Maybe I can't get her face out of my head! So what?"

Seth's smirk grew wider. "Then Ambrose, you will get a chance with this princess. If this Sea Witch isn't a total crock, then we'll be walking on dry land and breathing only air. And we'll be free from Triple H's tyranny."

Roman grinned. "Believe that."


	6. I Want The Good Times Back Part II

**Caylender's A/N: So I'm safely relocated across the country, and I swear I'm not enrolled in witness protection... *ahem* So Captain is a slave driver, which is why this was written in a timely fashion. Curse you Captainbartholomew!**

 **Chapter 5: I Want The Good Times Back Part II (Stephanie Interlude)**

At one point in her life, Stephanie was truly happy. She had everything a merperson (or really anyone really) could want. She was a princess, training to be the queen of the Seven Seas. She was also in love with a handsome merman, Hunter. In Stephanie's heart of hearts, when Shawn Michaels introduced her to Hunter she knew this merman and her were destined to have legends written about them. So, Stephanie divided her time between Hunter and aiding her people.

Stephanie loved helping the less fortunate people; she volunteered large portions of her time to working with the poor communities to try to make her future kingdom the best it could ever be. She only wished she could do more for the poor, unfortunate souls because she knew some were in pain and others were in need, but it seemed she didn't have enough time in her day to complete so many strenuous tasks and assist her people.

One day, some idle chatter from one of her hands maidens caught her attention. Normally, the women who attended to her talked only of dreamy mermen and charming dolphins; however, that day their gossip was different. They discussed how an age old manatee had drifted into the court to seek an audience with Stephanie's father.

Stephanie was immediately intrigued by this news. If the manatee that had appeared was the right one and if legends could be taken as credible sources, there was one manatee who possessed the ability to wield the ever-allusive power of magic. Stephanie would only be able to help more of her citizens if she could use magic. She would be the best queen and help all the merpeople in the kingdom.

The young princess rushed down to the Royal Court just in time to see the manatee turning to leave. What she assumed was luck was on her side, and the princess caught up to the old sea creature before she departed from the kingdom.

After hearing Stephanie's passionate plea for magic, the manatee could only sigh and face the young princess with milky white eyes. She told Stephanie, "I believe in your good intentions; however, magic is dangerous, and even though one might think they have good intentions, sometimes a spell might have great consequences. Magic always has a price. Nothing is ever free."

Stephanie reiterated that she only wanted to be a better queen because her people deserved the best.

The manatee pulled off the lovely green amulet she wore around her neck and gently placed it around Stephanie's throat. "This amulet will is the source of my power," the manatee explained. "I am quite ready to be without magic. I can feel it in my bones; I am quite ready to die."

The manatee sighed in relief as though a weight was lifted from her, and the manatee shifted before Stephanie's eyes. She almost seemed to turn into a mermaid for a brief moment until she reverted back to a wrinkled, grizzled manatee. The manatee warned Stephanie to stay away from the dark magic before she swam off, feeling peace for the first time in so many centuries.

Stephanie was very aware of the weight the amulet carried, and as she summoned her spell book for the first time and she read through some of the almost-evil spells of transformation, she understood what she wrought upon herself. She vowed to herself to only use white magic.

As Stephanie's magic powers grew, she would occasionally feel the temptation to try some of the more dangerous, dark spells, not because she was evil but because it seemed like the best way to test out her ability. However regardless of how tempting it was, she refrained.

That is until Hunter's best friend, Shawn Michaels, came to her with an unusual request. The spell he requested was a particularly nasty one. In fact, it was the only spell that didn't have a reversal unless the caster was shrewd enough to cast limitations to accompany the spell. Stephanie denied Shawn. She expected that to be the end of the conversation, so she was caught unprepared when Shawn insulted her.

The merman yelled, "Just let me have this! No, I demand you give me this, you worthless excuse for a mermaid! You're not a real sorceress, you're just some little mermaid parading around to be one!"

Stephanie was proud; it was her biggest flaw. "Fine, I'll do it… under one condition!"

"Name your price," Shawn answered.

"When I turn you human, you never return to the sea… ever. No walking on the beach. No sailing out on the ocean. None of that. You can never come back here, do you hear me? Oh, and one other thing, you never speak word of this to Hunter."

Stephanie was a smart mermaid. She knew despite the fact she had Hunter's full devotion (or what she interpreted as his devotion), there would always be a part of Hunter that would always value Shawn as his closest and dearest friend. Stephanie wouldn't say she was jealous of their close bond, but could one really blame her if she was? This was the only way to ensure she was the only merperson in Hunter's life.

When Shawn questioned her on her condition, Stephanie responded, "Because every magic spell has a price and you must barter something. You will barter away your friendship with Hunter and home if you want to walk on land that desperately."

When Stephanie performed the transformation spell on Shawn, she felt a rush of exhilaration fill her unlike anything she had ever felt before. She could get used to the power. Her satisfaction was squashed when she returned home to find that her father had been poisoned and died. Her sorrow was enough to make her want to brush aside the incredible rush of dark magic and her underlying desire to to cast another dark spell. She hoped to forget her stint with dark magic.

However her hopes were crushed when Hunter found out what she did for Shawn. With his newly acquired power of being king, he banished her to live in exile in the Wastelands, never to return to Atlantis until she could reverse the spell she had cast on Shawn.

Oh, the irony. He asked her to do the impossible, to find a way to reverse an irreversible spell. Stephanie felt the last shreds of her composure dissipate.

Before she left Atlantis, Stephanie cursed Hunter giving into her desire to use black magic once again. She use a particularly nasty curse in order to tarnish his handsome face, in order to make it as hideous as she thought his heart had become.

Yes, she was the reason Shawn was on the Surface, but Hunter should have known he lost his best friend long ago.

So Stephanie settled into her new home, utterly alone and miserable.

As the years passed, her bitterness only grew exponentially. The only glimpses of the Underwater Kingdom she received were the various merpeople who sought her magical expertise in order to cut deals with the Sea Witch.

Stephanie wasn't sure why she made deals with the merpeople. Maybe it was residual desire to aid the less fortunate from before her foray with dark magic. Or maybe she just wanted to hold horrible stipulations over the heads of whomever made the deal.

For instance, the two blonde hooligans with the Surface World's kazoos were forced to surrender their own magic in order to join the Surface World. Ziggler the Dolphin had to reject his family and his heritage. Maybe the best example of fine print was the stipulation that Zayn had to betray Owens. But her favorite had to be when she convinced Enzo to give up his voice in order to save his best friend Big Cass...Shutting up that merman was a special pleasure of hers.

The merpeople would always come and ask her for help, but to many she had become that of legend. Only few dared to seek her out, but when they came, she cut deals and used spells to grant their wishes of becoming human.

Stephanie never stopped trying to find a reversal to the transformation spell she used on Shawn. Continuously using the dark magic for the requests and experimenting with spells tainted her; it sunk into her skin and dwelled in her heart. And that was the cruelest part of her life; no matter how much she hated Hunter for how he shunned her, she couldn't deny that she longed for his love and acceptance.


	7. Poor Unfortunate Souls Part I

**Caylender's A/N: So while Captain is a slave driver, she's also a big softie. Why don't we post Part 1 while we're at it? she asked me. And since I had no good reason why we shouldn't, and since I needed to find a distraction, so I don't think it's dinnertime (there's a two hour time difference from here and where we moved from) because gosh darn it, I'm not at the age where I should want to eat dinner at like 5 PM... Anyways... Here's the next chapter.**

 **Chapter 6: Poor Unfortunate Souls Part I**

Seth cleared his throat nervously. "Hello?" He fidgeted nervously. "Hello? We're looking for Stephanie?"

Seth then shrugged. "Maybe those rumors were really just rumors and there isn't really a Sea Witch…"

Roman frowned, rubbing his beard and glancing around. "Or maybe we have the wrong place."

Dean made a disbelieving face. "We're literally in a freaking giant skeleton of what looks to be a freaking terrifying spiny fish that's probably been extinct for billions of years, and to top this place off, there's what looks to be a book made out of skin over there and a giant caldron in the middle of the room. How could this not be a witch's lair?"

Sure enough, on a little table next to the caldron was a huge book with crinkled pages, but the cover and spin was a grizzled leatherly brown that could only be one thing...

A soft laugh filled the room, making the brothers cringe. "Oh, you boys came to admire my Necronomicon? I didn't peg you to be book enthusiasts."

Three pairs of eyes darted over to the figure that appeared in the narrow doorway on the other side of the room. She was ghastly. Her lower body wasn't a fin like the brothers were used to seeing, but rather a black rubbery-looking eight tentacles. As one of them floated up, little suction cups were visible. Her skin had a purple tinge to it, which happened to be a side effect of the ink that coursed through her body. Her hair was a mass of blank tendrils that floated eerily around her. Lips that were painted a deep, blood red curled up into what might have been a friendly expression; however, the glint in her eyes dispelled that impression quickly. Her eyes were inky purple to the point where they were black except for the pupils, which were a bright red.

Her frightening eyes studied each brother intently before they lingered on Seth. Her smile grew even larger.

Seth fidgeted even more. The octopus woman gave him the same impression as Triple H. And if his instinct was right, this was the Sea Witch. With every passing second, Seth was doubting his idea to seek the Sea Witch's help in the first place. Something about seeing the woman face-to-face made him hesitate. If there was ever a word to describe Seth Rollins, it would be confident (maybe even to the point of being cocky), so this newfound doubt was a disconcerting sensation for him. "We weren't actually here for the Necronomicon. We were hoping to find Stephanie."

The octopus woman continued to smile. "Look no further. I am Stephanie. To what do I owe the pleasure of such young, handsome mermen?"

Seth glanced at Dean and Roman. Roman had his narrowed eyes focused on the Sea Witch, and Dean was frowning. Seth swallowed before saying, "We heard that you can help us. You like to use your magic to help people."

Something akin to triumph flashed in Stephanie's eyes, a single torch held over black water. "Well, you heard correctly, sweetie. I love to help those who are in desperate situations. What is the problem you are faced with, and what do you wish for me to do for you?"

Seth raised an eyebrow. Maybe he had completely misread the situation, and Stephanie really wasn't someone to fear. He glanced at Dean and made eye contact with him. Dean nodded slightly. Dean began to speak. "I saw this girl, and I felt a...connection with her."

Stephanie laughed. "Why do you need my help with that? That's not that too arduous of a situation. Just talk to the girl; you're attractive enough that I am sure you will not be rejected."

Dean drummed his fingers against his tail. "The problem is that she's not a merperson; she's a human."

Stephanie floated languidly towards the brothers. "You mean to tell me that you fell for a surface dweller? Oh, that is rich! Triple H won't like that at all." She paused at the worried expressions on the brothers' faces. "Oh, but there's more! Don't be afraid to tell me, boys; we're outside of Hunter's reach here. And Poseidon knows, _I_ wouldn't go swimming to Hunter."

Dean glanced at Seth and Roman. Seth mumbled, "He didn't care for the situation at all."

Dean hesitated for a second. "Hunter actually insisted on keeping a closer eye on us 'for our own good,' and they are coming to enlist us in this inner guard tonight at sundown."

Roman corrected, "Drafted and forced. Not enlist, we don't get a say in the matter."

Seth nodded in agreement while Dean clapped a hand on Roman's shoulder.

Stephanie nodded with a contemplative look on her face. She casually floated over to the Necronomicon. "You want to be able to walk on the surface, so you can win the affections of this girl? And to escape Hunter's control?"

The brothers exchanged looks once again. Dean finally said, "If that's possible?"

Stephanie laughed Dean's statement. "Oh please, that is child's play." She lovingly traced a finger down the spin on the Necronomicon before carefully pulling the book open. "I haven't had to cast a spell on more than one at a time in quite a while...not since those two...but have no fear, it is simple enough."

As she paged through the book, two eels slinked into the room, lingering by Stephanie's side. The eels watched the brothers carefully. The one on the right of the Sea Witch would repeatedly open and close its mouth and the one on the left uttered a small shriek towards its twin.

"Now in order to make this official, all three of you need to sign this contract." Stephanie said, casually. She pulled up a red scroll that matched her pupils perfectly.

"A contract?" Dean asked. His brow was furrowed, and he was instantly suspicious.

"What are the terms?" Seth questioned.

Stephanie laughed. "Oh sweetie, don't make me out to be a villain here. It's just your standard agreement. I have to protect myself, you know. Sometimes, a merperson might be unsatisfied with their spell. You can imagine, the classic 'didn't think things through before asking for a transformation' scenario."

Seth frowned, feeling like he was missing something important here. He glanced at Dean and Roman. Roman wore a neutral expression while Dean looked like he trying to quell how excited he felt. Seth turned back to Stephanie. "So we wouldn't owe you anything? You're just doing this out of the goodness in your heart?"

The eels began twirling around Stephanie almost frantically. One of them shrieked again, seemingly looking right at Seth. Seth tilted his head, staring at the eel before focusing on Stephanie again.

"Oh sweetheart, why are you so untrusting of me, Aunty Stephanie?" Stephanie shook her head. "It's true nothing is free, but I _am_ getting something out of this arrangement."

"And that would be?" Roman asked.

"The satisfaction from helping out others in need! I'm really a tender, bleeding heart; I can't bare to see someone in need." She leaned forward over the Necronomicon. "Knowing that I make a difference is all the payment I need."

She held out the contract towards Dean. The scroll unrolled and she held out a fish bone quill. "All you need to do is sign on the bottom. If you sign, you can be with that human girl and have a chance at true love."

Dean grabbed the quill and quickly signed his name on the top of the three lines on the contract; he almost dropped the quill in his excitement. He passed the contract to Roman who swiftly signed it as well. Roman handed the contact to Seth. Seth hesitated, glancing over to look at his brothers, but they already had signed it; he sighed and signed it as well. He squinted at the signed contract, looking at a paragraph that was several sizes smaller than the rest of the contract's font.

Stephanie smirked. She picked up a bottle and chucked it at Dean. "Cetacea!"

The bottle broke and the fizzy blue liquid it contained covered Dean. Then Dean screamed and was encompassed in a puff of smoke. When the smoke disappeared, a dopey manatee was floating in Dean's stead. Seth and Roman gaped at Dean the manatee.

Stephanie cackled and threw another bottle at Roman. "Chelonia mydas!" And she threw one at Seth, shrieking, "Phocidae!"

Seth and Roman were engulfed in smoke and when the smoke cleared. Dean saw Roman was a turtle, and Seth was a seal.

Stephanie snorted and laughed even harder. "Oh this will be even better!" She threw three more bottles at the brothers. "Paralichthys! Brachyura! Polyps!"

When the smoke cleared, Roman had transformed into a flounder, Seth into a crab, and Dean into a green plant-like polyp. The brothers exchanged horrified looks before Stephanie cast a spell that returned the tree into their original merpeople forms.

Stephanie took several deep gulps of water to calm her laughter. "Oh, that was fun."

"What the hell?" Dean yelled.

"I just wanted to reinforce that I have more power than the three of you could ever hope to achieve." Stephanie explained casually while examining her jagged fingernails. "Now Seth, you look like you have a question for me."

Seth glared at the Sea Witch. "What the hell is on that contract we signed?"

Stephanie cackled at the brothers. "Didn't you read the fine print before you signed it?"

The eels slinked around the caldron and twirled around the brothers.

"Did you really expect to get something out of nothing? After I transform you three into humans, you will have three days to keep up your end of the agreement, or I get dear little Sethie's soul."

Seth looked more pissed off at his own negligence than anything while Dean's mouth dropped open in horror, and Roman glared angrily at the Sea Witch.

Stephanie smirked. "Nothing is free."


	8. Sweet Child Part I

**Captain's AN: Contrary to some people's opinions, I'm not a slave driver (cough, caylendar, cough). Excuse me, my allergies are acting up, sorry y'all, but seriously I'm just organized. caylendar and I would also like to thank you all for the reviews. They mean the world to us and we enjoy reading everyone's feedback. So with that said, here is the next chapter in our tale! Enjoy!**

 **Chapter 7: Sweet Child (Brie Interlude)**

Throughout the entire ordeal, all Brie could think about was how she so dearly wanted to grab Dean's hand and prevent him from signing that contract. Nothing was free.

Her heart yearned to warn these brothers about what they were truly getting themselves into. Nothing was free.

She wanted to beseech those brothers to read the fine print of that contract. Nothing was free.

Brie found herself struggling to tell them about the ramifications that would occur if they should fail to hold up their end of the contract. Nothing was free.

She knew that very well.

Brie remembered signing her very own contract. Nothing was free.

Eight years ago, her twin, Nikki, fell in love. She had been swimming too close to the surface and saw a human prince, swimming in the waters of a gulf. It was such a small encounter. He glanced up and made eye contact with her. She was mesmerized by his eyes. No words were uttered between the two. He just smiled at her, and she smiled back. In the distance, someone called his name, and John Cena turned away.

Nikki had gushed about him to Brie for hours the next couple of nights... She talked about his muscular physique, his chiseled jaw, and his dreamy eyes. She wanted nothing more than to kiss his perfect lips and be his forever. Patiently, Brie listened to Nikki's enthusiasm; she internally thanked Poseidon that the prince hadn't seen Nikki's tail. Triple H would have gutted them if the existence of merpeople had been exposed…

Nikki cried so much the night she realized that she would never be able to actually know if the real life version of this prince could measure up to the idealized image in her mind. She realized that her love for a human was an impossibility. She could never truly be a part of his world…

Brie held her close to her as Nikki cried herself to sleep; the tears exhausted her like nothing else had before. Brie sympathized with her sister. She knew what it was like to fall in love, and she knew very well how it felt to lose that love. She lost her Daniel Bryan some time ago because of his involvement with an attempted revolution; Triple H had been sure to execute Daniel to showcase him as an example to the other merpeople in Atlantis…

Then one day, Nikki pulled Brie into a big hug and whispered that she loved her. That night, she didn't come home. Brie thought she was going to die from worry.

Three days and nights passed before Brie heard any word on her twin from one of the remaining intel people from her lover's revolution circle. Of course, the news had been bad. Nikki had gone to Stephanie, the Sea Witch, in order to get a chance to meet her John Cena.

The problem had been that Nikki didn't read the fine print on the contract before she signed it; she needed to receive a marriage proposal in three days to be able to remain on the Surface, and Cena never proposed... The penalty for _breaking_ the contract was to be enslaved for a lifetime to the Sea Witch herself.

Brie swam as swiftly as she could to the Wastelands and entered the Chasm to bargain for her sister's freedom.

"Please," she begged. "Let her go."

Stephanie cackled. "No."

"Reduce her life debt to twenty years!"

"Nothing is free," Stephanie said, simply. She studied a lone eel that languidly swam back and forth by the doorway, like it was pacing.

"You can have half of my life and half of Nikki's. Together we'll serve her life debt." Brie didn't know where this idea came from; however, she couldn't regret voicing it. With the death of Daniel, all she had left was Nikki.

Stephanie laughed and pointed out that she had no way of knowing how much life the two women possessed.

Brie considered. "Take twenty years. We'll serve you for twenty years."

Stephanie considered this offer. "Thirty years. For thirty years, you will both serve me as my slaves."

Brie's breathing quickened as she really took in the Sea Witch, seeing her purple tinged skin and her red eyes; then she thought of Nikki being alone… "Deal"

Stephanie produced a contract. "Sign on the bottom."

Brie took the proffered quill and signed her name.

Stephanie snatched the contract back and cackled. "Poor, sweet, sad child, you're my slave now." She turned around, so that she faced away from Brie. "I don't like how you look now. You're too beautiful. Bella Twins indeed." Stephanie snapped her fingers. "As per our agreement which you signed, you will now adopt your new form."

Brie's body was encompassed in white hot pain. She screamed and screamed until it suddenly stopped. She opened her eyes and looked at Stephanie questioningly. She tried to talk but found that she couldn't, only a thin warble came out of her mouth.

Stephanie gave her a small smirk and shifted over, so Brie could look at her reflection in the mirror on the wall. She lacked a humanoid torso; she lacked arms. Her beautiful mermaid body was now replaced with the body of an eel. Her narrow yellow eyes took in the eel from earlier that she could now see was Nikki. She glared back at Stephanie.

Stephanie shook her head and smiled almost sadly. "Everything has a price. Nothing is free."


	9. Poor Unfortunate Souls Part II

**Captain's AN: I'm going on vacation over the weekend starting tomorrow and then going on the business trip to Canada for work the following week, so as I told caylendar we need to post the next chapter for our readers today! She agreed, but it will be up to her to post the next chapter to our story, so don't let her forget darlings! ;) Anyways, whose excited for the Seth face turn?! Woohoo! Are you? Let us know in a review and let us know what you think about our story too, please and thank you!**

 **Chapter 8: Poor Unfortunate Souls Part II**

"What do you mean you'll get Seth's soul?" Roman growled.

Stephanie smirked. "I mean exactly that. If you fail to complete your end of the agreement, Seth's soul is mine, and you two will become mermen once again."

"What do you want from us?" Seth asked, lowly.

Stephanie lovingly stroked the edges of the Necronomicon's cover. "It's simple really. Since your dear brother Dean here is the one in love, all you three need to do is find someone on the surface world that loves Dean as much as he loves you, his brothers. Hopefully, it's that little human girl he is so smitten for. It's actually quite easy."

Dean swore under his breath.

Stephanie drifted closer to the brothers. "If you can achieve that little task, you boys may remain in the human world indefinitely. Isn't that wonderful? You have the opportunity to seek and cherish happiness, maybe even power up there in the world above. This is such an opportunity for you boys, some merpeople would stab their loved ones in the back for something like this." Stephanie paused, contemplating. "I think that was one of the parameters for a deal once… Owens betraying Zayn, wasn't it?"

The Sea Witch shook her head. "I apologize for my tangent. As I was saying, if you fail, you transform back into mermen. Roman and Dean, go back to your lives...Whatever they may consist of: frolicing about, feeling the crushing devastation of losing your dear baby brother, sniffing sulfur from volcanic vents in your depression, evading Hunter for the rest of your lives and never having peace again... and what was that last thing? Oh that's right, Seth, I will own your poor unfortunate soul, and I will do with it, whatever I please."

"Now to turn you into humans," Stephanie said in a sing song voice, "After all, it was what you wished for." The Sea Witch paused and looked up at the brothers. "Unless, of course, you wish to give up before you even start. I would not blame you. But since you've already signed on the dotted line, I would have to collect my payment..."

"NO!" The three brothers yelled in near-perfect unison.

"We aren't giving up before we even start," Seth snarled, "That's not us…"

Stephanie grinned at the brothers, almost shark-like. "As you wish." She spread her arms wide and cast one last spell on the brothers as the two eels looked on not making a noise.

Dean screamed when the first dregs of excruciating tendrils of white hot pain began to course through his body as he watched his brilliantly green tail become undone.

Unfamiliar pain of an entire limb splitting in half and transforming into a different composition coursed through the brothers' bodies, not to mention the sensation of lungs devolving into the human equivalent and surrendering the ability to filter oxygen out of water. For the first time, they became aware of how the salt water stung their eyes, how heavy the pressure of the ocean weighed down upon them, and how very desperately they needed to take a gulp of air.

How could he be so foolish and miss something so big, Seth berated himself while he watched his blue tail twist and contort. Honestly, obsessing over his shortcomings was the only way he wasn't passing out from the pain of the transformation. Feeling like he let his brothers down with his lack of foresight kept him aware and cognisant of what their next move needed to be: swimming up and out of this Chasm. He made eye contact with Dean and nodded his head up to the surface.

Dean felt a rush of excitement and elation when he peered down to see his new fins. Yes, they were kind of pale and awkward looking, but if they could grant him the opportunity to be able to meet the Princess, they were well-worth it. Although he did feel guilty, he never intended to bargain away his brother's soul. He glanced at Seth to see him nodding to the surface. Holding his breath, he began kicking his new fins to swim up.

Roman had always been known as the strong brother out of the three. He was always the biggest, the most physically imposing; however, he had never felt this weak ever in his life before. As his red colored fin continued to split into the odd gangly version of fins that the humans possessed, Roman was horrified to feel how skinny they were, how weak they were. He opened his mouth to take a deep breath, only to realize his body could not separate the oxygen out of the water. His eyes widened in a sudden epiphany: he was going to die right there and then with a Sea Witch cackling at his misfortune.

He could hear the Sea Witch crowing not far behind him, "Swim! Swim for your life Shield brothers! Swim for your lives, human Shield brothers!"

As soon as Roman heard the Sea Witch, he felt a pair of hands grab onto each of his arms, and Seth and Dean pulled him up out of the Sea Witch's Chasm. Dean's strong hands held him steady when they breached the surface, and Seth rubbed his back as Roman sputtered out all the water he had inhaled.

After Roman regained his ability to breath, the trio began paddling to the shore to begin their quest.


	10. Positoovity!

**Caylender's AN:** I apologize for all the lowbrow humor, but I regret nothing. The puns just kept coming... If you are offended, I wrote this chapter, so blame me...unless you wanna blame Captain anyways. That's fine with me.

And thanks for all the follows, favorites, and reviews. Captain and I appreciate it.

 **9: Positoovity!**

Roman sat in a tangled heap on the beach, feeling grumpy. His nose, throat, and chest still hurt after inhaling the freaking salt water. And his legs were too weak for him to stand. Roman blew a chunk of wet hair out of his face that flopped back into his eyes immediately. "My hair keeps getting in my eyes. I never had this problem before."

Dean snorted from where he was tentatively standing above Roman. "I think you're just sad it's not as bouncy and flowy as it was before."

Roman scowled at him, and Dean finally lost his balance and toppled onto Roman. Dean yelled, "This is ridiculous! How the heck do humans stand on these fins, let alone walk? It's impossible!"

"Come on, Dean. Together, we can stand," Roman said, mustering up some confidence.

Dean and Roman braced themselves by grabbing each other's arms and shoulders. Slowly, they began to stand. For a precious moment, they stood triumphantly until their legs began to wobble, and the two brothers collapsed in a pile of limbs.

"Aw, come on, seriously!" Dean moaned. "I hate these new fins!"

"You okay down there?" A grinning Seth asked.

Dean and Roman stared incredulously at Seth, who was standing, effortlessly; he was even bouncing slightly on his toes.

"How are you doing that so easily?" Dean demanded.

Seth tilted his head. "Doing what?"

"Standing there like a jerk! Flaunting your abnormal ability!" Dean gestured wildly with his hands, narrowly missing smacking Roman in the face.

"Not falling," Roman deadpanned.

Seth ran a hand through his hair. "I dunno. It's not really that hard. Maybe it's just my crossfit training paying off."

"That doesn't even make sense! You didn't even have those same muscles when you were working out back then!"

Seth shrugged. "You guys can stop messing around now and get up; we have so much to do."

Dean scowled. "We're not messing around."

"Ohh" Seth's eyes widened in surprise, and he scrambled to help his brothers gain their bearings. It was a bit like a hopeless task; anytime one brother would be on his feet, the other would be a disheveled mess on the sand.

"I swear you guys are being clumsy on purpose," Seth said while he carefully helped Roman keep his feet under him as Dean was trying to coach his legs into working properly.

Seeing the rather heated glare Dean was sending Seth's way, Roman quickly said, "So what are all these things we need to?"

Seth sighed and held onto Roman's arm to allow the eldest to find his balance. "Well, other than the obvious issue of finding Dean's Princess, spinning a story that won't paint us as mermen-newly-turned-human, teaching you two how to walk and stand, getting someone to love Dean as much as he loves us, and… Shoot, there's something else I'm forgetting…" Seth gently let go of Roman's arm and put his hands on his hips. "What was it? I feel like it was something really obvious…"

Without Seth's support, Roman tumbled down to the ground. "Oh, Ro…" Seth shook his head.

A gentle breeze blew off the seaweed that had been gathered on Seth's waist. Roman and Dean's eyes zeroed in on Seth before the Architect looked down at his own body seemingly fascinated with his new parts. "Huh, that's new, isn't it?"

After staring at himself for a moment, Seth came to a realization. "Hey, don't humans usually wear cloths wrapped around their bodies?"

Dean and Roman both looked down at their own bodies. Roman furrowed his brow, and Dean let out a contemplative, "Huh."

"I didn't realize humans had three fins.." Roman mused out loud.

"Me neither," Seth mumbled.

Dean smugly looked at his two brothers. "Mine's bigger than yours."

Roman cocked his head to the side. " I don't think that's true."

Seth scowled. "You can't just say that with no evidence!"

Dean smirked. "Fine! I can back it up!"

"Wait, wait!" Roman interrupted the impending comparison. "Does it even matter?"

Seth and Dean paused. Dean shrugged while Seth rubbed his beard and said, "No?"

Roman nodded in approval. "There you go. We should focus on Seth's tasks instead of comparing our new fins."

"So we need cloths tailored to fit the human form?" Seth thought out loud.

Dean pointed at Seth. "I vote you go find us some!"

"Agreed!" Roman said.

"Wait, why me?" Seth asked. "Isn't it a social stigma on the Surface to be uncovered while going to the market? How am I supposed to get covering cloths?"

Dean and Roman exchanged glances, and Dean said, "Well, seeing as Roman and I can't even stand on our own, and you apparently were born to run, you need to find the nearest human house and steal covering cloths for us."

Seth sighed, annoyed that Dean actually had valid points. "Fine! I guess I'll look over by a house."

Dean smirked as Seth spun around (abet rather gracefully) and stomped away from Roman and Dean.

"Do you even know where you're going to look?" Roman called after him, slightly concerned.

Seth threw a haughty look over his shoulder. "Of course, I do! I _always_ have a plan." He continued to walk away.

Dean looked at Roman. "He has no clue where he's going, does he?"

Roman smirked. "Not at all. But he's stubborn."

They watched as Seth paused with his head turning back and forth, seemingly lost as to where to proceed to, before heading down the beach towards the lighthouse.

Roman shook his head. "I still don't get how he can balance on his fins like that."

Dean shrugged. "He's a freak. Come on, bro; let's try to figure out how these new fins work."

Meanwhile, Seth had just reached the lighthouse and was hiding behind a flowery shrub. He was trying to figure out how to best procure some of those specialty covering cloths. One possibility was to break into the house and steal some cloths, but that was dishonest… Another idea was to simply knock on the door and ask if the inhabitant had any covering cloths to spare. Seth sighed, thinking there were so many factors that could go horribly wrong with that plan.

Seth was considering how difficult it would be to make these covering cloths out of seaweed, or maybe it would be easier to just find a discarded ship's sail and fashion diapers of some sort out of the canvass. Just as Seth was trying to figure out what to use as the binding agent to seal the covering cloths, he noticed that a rope hung behind the house with some of the covering cloths, strung up on it. Seth grinned and rushed over to it.

He pondered which of the covering cloths he should grab. They needed something to cover all three of their new fins… Seth made the executive decision to bypass the pink, flowery garments. After careful consideration, he picked up three covering clothes that seemed to be designed to go over the long fins.

"Ohhh"

Seth turned to see a young woman, blushing furiously, standing next to a dropped basket. Seth walked over to her and picked the basket up to hand back to her.

"You're- ahem- naked, Sir." Her eyes wracked up and down Seth's torso before they trailed lower...

Seth shrugged. "Don't I know it. My brothers and I just woke up on the beach. We were umm..."

"Ship wrecked?" The woman asked, still staring at Seth's body.

"Yes! That's it! Our ship was wrecked! We're lucky to be alive!" Seth said with a big smile before he seemed to remember that being shipwrecked was probably a negative experience. "I mean, we _almost died_."

"Oh you, poor thing!" The woman said in a breathy tone, and she put a comforting hand on Seth's arm. "You must have been so scared!"

"Scared? Ha! Not at all! It was awful, but I knew I needed to keep strong to protect my brothers."

"You're sooo brave and strong."

Seth grinned. "Why thank you."

"But what happened to all your clothes?"

"My what?"

"You're naked, Sir. Completely exposed to the world. What happened to your clothes?" She said, still staring.

"Oh!" She must mean the covering clothes. "They were so badly damaged from the…"

"The big storm? They must have gotten so torn from all of the tumultuous waves and winds! Not to mention getting snagged on debris…"

"Um, sure... That's exactly right! So when I woke up, I volunteered to get us some...clothes because not wearing any would break a social norm," Seth said, proud of himself.

"Well, I would give you some, but I only have dresses. You see, my husband's been out at sea for the longest time, and I don't have any of his old things… Those trousers you're holding belong to neighbor. You see, we share the clothes line...But now that you're here, I can nurse you back to health. You must be so tired, and I've been so lonely."

Seth didn't like the hungry look in the woman's eyes, and warning bells began sounding in his mind. Subconsciously, Seth remembered when Roman had sat him and Dean down, and the eldest of the three had given them a lecture about stranger danger. He said that they should never trust an Angler Fish because while their lights might be pretty, the lights only served to distract from the big, sharp teeth. "Umm, I'm okay. I need to get back to my brothers."

"Are your brothers as handsome as you? Because if they are, you can bring them with."

Seth backed up away from the woman when a shrill voice came from somewhere behind them. "What do you think you're doing? Drop those clothes, you thief!"

Seth froze and saw an elderly woman, running towards him with a rolling pin in hand. Seth took off sprinting towards the beach, hoping the woman wouldn't be able to keep up with him in a fin race.

As it turned out, Seth had nothing to worry about. He carefully jogged back to the beach in an effortless fashion. The old lady had nothing on Rollins! Sure, Seth had to shimmy up a fence, claw his way through some rose bushes, and avoid a rabid raccoon, but he lost the old lady who wanted to beat him up with a rolling pin and the woman who wanted to jump him.

Seth casually straightened as he skid to a stop in front of his brothers, and he held up the trousers. "I got us some clothes."

"Nice going, Sethie! I knew you had it in you," Dean said with a smirk. The merman-turned-human had finally figured out the key to keeping his balance and was proudly standing.

Roman smiled up at Seth from where he was still sprawled out in the sand.

Seth tossed the two their trousers, and the brothers struggled into the unfamiliar clothes, succeeding after a few failed attempts.

Dean's were about a foot too short, Seth had to hold his by the waist to keep them from falling off, and Roman was content to see his fit just right. Regardless of the actual fit, all three felt rather silly in the garments, but Roman actively hated his trousers.

"This sucks. I miss swimming around: uncovered and free," Roman grumbled.

Seth rolled his eyes at Roman's comment. "Okay, so that's one and a half problems solved," Seth said cheerfully. "Now we just have to find Dean's princess and figure out how to not seem like creepy stalkers! Does anyone have an idea?"

Dean glanced at Roman who shrugged and said, "I've got nothing. I have no idea how the Surface World politics work. But I have a feeling, we can't just show up in the castle. Dean?"

Dean ran a hand through his messy curls. "I guess it would be stupid of me to suggest we just hope the Princess would just show up here conveniently...:"

"Yeah," Seth and Roman agreed.

"Well, Neptune…"

Seth sighed. "Well, let's just focus on getting Roman to his feet."

As Dean and Seth tried to coach Roman into standing, they didn't notice the group walking on the beach. The group watched the brothers tried to pull the big man up until all three were left in a collapsed heap on the sand.

"Are you alright? What happened?" A sweet voice asked.

All three heads shot up. Dean's mouth fell open. "I-uh-I mean-you"

Seth glanced at Roman with a surprised expression. What were the odds of the Princess running into them conveniently on the beach? Seth then bowed his head at the Princess and her two advisers. "I'm sorry. We're just three brothers, washed to shore from a shipwreck. We honestly have no idea where we are right now. Roman, here can't seem to regain his bearings. Oh, I'm Seth by-the-way, and that's Dean."

"I'm so sorry to hear that!" Sonia said. "Are you hurt at all?"

"Shipwrecked, you say?" Christian said with a raised eyebrow in a way that said he wasn't entirely convinced. Edge smiled and nudged Christian, and the two advisers seemed to have a conversation without any words. Sonia glanced at her advisers and back at the brothers.

Dean opened his mouth, but nothing would come out.

Seth shook his head. "I think we're alright, except for Roman being unable to regain his fins. Although, Dean might have hit his head."

"Fins?" Edge asked and grinned slyly at Christian.

Dean glared at Seth but softened his gaze when Sonia crouched in front of him and placed a gentle hand to his head beginning to poke and prod him. "You poor things. You will come back with us, home, so I can be sure you are all well. " She paused and added, "My name is Sonia."

"Princess Sonia," Christian added in an unpleased tone the Princess was inviting these sea urchins back the palace with them.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness," Roman's deep voice said smoothly when it was clear Dean wasn't going to say anything.

As Seth and the Princess's royal advisers helped Roman to his feet, Sonia continued to gently probe Dean's head for any bumps. "I don't feel anything, but that doesn't mean you don't have a concussion…"

Dean could picture Seth and Roman yelling at him to say something. "Um, the tides are sure strong today!"

Sonia gave him a funny look before smiling. "I suppose so. They washed the three of you up."

However, the Princess noticed something about this man named Dean as she continued to poke and prod at his head. His eyes were the same vivid ocean blue she had seen the day of her shipwreck, he couldn't possibly be the same man though, that was impossible. Surely no human could have swam out that far in the ocean to save her, but as she tried to think through this logically, the strange man broke her concentration.

"And… the turtles are finding spots to nest!"

"Yeah, you definitely hit your head. Let's get you and your brothers home, so you can rest. If you're feeling better tonight, you can join us for the feast."


	11. One Step Closer

And here's the next chapter. :D

* * *

Chapter 10: One Step Closer

Once the brothers had arrived at the castle, Sonia sent the chamber maids off to find the royal tailors to give the boys the proper clothing they needed. The royal tailors were miracle workers and found the three brothers clothes that fit and would look acceptable at any royal function.

Many of the people in the castle felt sorry for them and Seth would retell their tale to anyone who would listen. They were the brothers, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns, tragically shipwrecked while crossing the sea. How lucky had it been they had been washed ashore to Excalibur? How fortunate had it been Princess Sonia had found them on her afternoon walk? Also how awesome was it they had been invited to the Princess's royal feast.

Speaking of, the royal feast was a whole other debacle. Sure, they had attended feasts under the sea before, but never a feast in the Surface World, so they were extremely unfamiliar with the culture. There was boisterous shouting, eating and one other thing the brothers had never seen before in their lives: dancing.

They were intrigued by it, and they stared at the couples twirling around the floor of the ballroom for what seemed like hours on end before the Princess escaped from her duty of greeting guests.

Stealthily, the princess snuck up beside Dean and gently tapped him on his shoulder.

"May I have this dance?"

"Uh, Princess, I, uh, I don't," Dean stammered, trying to reason with the determined woman as Sonia grabbed his hand pulling him out onto the dance floor with her. "I don't dance, it's not my thing."

"Don't be shy, Sir Dean," Sonia reasoned carefully taking Dean's hand in her own. "I taught my father how to dance, and I most certainly can teach you."

"How did you know?" questioned Dean skeptically as Sonia placed one of Dean's hands on the small of her back while she placed her left hand on Dean's shoulder. She gripped her other hand and Dean's raising them into the air as she began to lead the young man around the dance floor.

"A lady never tells," answered Sonia with a smirk. "Now, follow my lead."

The Princess seemed to be as light as a feather on her feet while Dean was a big clomping mess. The merman never having had the experience of dancing before seemed to have two left fins, er feet. But who could blame him? He only had legs and feet for less than a day… Princess Sonia though only chuckled as Dean tried not to stomp on her feet.

"You're nervous," Sonia reasoned as she pulled Dean close to her while the tempo of the music began to slow down. "You know there's nothing to be nervous about. A dance is like a conversation."

"What do you mean, your highness?" questioned Dean a bit confused.

"When I taught my father how to dance, I told him a dance was like a conversation, and we don't really need to make a sound. And once you've begun, you speak as one, give and take, back and forth, round and round. There you go, Sir Dean, now you've got it!"

Dean smirked as he successfully twirled Sonia under his arm, allowing her to spin.

"Now, I'm certain your brothers aren't going to make fun of you too bad once we're done with our dance," the Princess said as she smiled up at the man and as he smiled down at her.

Dean quickly looked over at his brothers, who stood on the side of the ballroom. Roman stood silently watching them dance while Seth seemed to be having a very animated conversation with himself or with Roman, Dean really didn't know which. He sighed as the Princess and he continued to dance, wondering what his brothers were discussing.

"This is going to be a disaster! She'll never love Dean as much as he loves us if he doesn't even know how to do this whole dancing thing!" cried Seth in exasperation as he waved his hands about frantically. "We're screwed; we're so screwed! I like having a soul!"

"Seth," Roman tried to get his little brother's attention, but seemed to be failing miserably.

"Not now, Roman! I'm trying to come up with a backup plan in case Dean royally screws this up. Do you think they have merpeople in Antarctica?"

"Seth," Roman tried again but failed.

"Probably not, but we will make do in the frozen tundra; we'll make do! We'll just have to watch out for Leopard Seals!"

Before Seth could devise more of a plan did Roman turn his little brother around to see the Princess and Dean spinning elegantly to a waltz.

"I'll be damned," Seth muttered under his breath while watching the couple waltz. "The doofus doesn't have two left fins at all. And you were worried he couldn't dance, Roman."

The Power House snorted in the background while rolling his eyes as they watched Dean and Sonia dance together as the sunset in the background.

As the sunset drenched the ballroom in a swirl of colors, Dean frowned knowing his first day was up. He looked down at Sonia, who was glancing back over at the other side of the ballroom where Edge and Christian stood with the princes who had come seeking her hand in marriage from all over the globe. Christian was exuberantly waving and pointing at different princes for her to dance with that were not as commonplace as this Dean Ambrose fellow.

"Ugh," groaned Sonia as she caught the suitors giving Dean evil glares. "I swear those Princes need to chill out. You'd think they'd take the hint that I'm not interested in them."

"Your highness?" questioned Dean confused by what Sonia was saying. "Are you alright?"

"No," sighed Sonia as she pulled Dean closer to her. "I just want to find someone who will let me be myself and rule the kingdom as Queen, not be a statue. Freedom should be free, but I promised my father on his deathbed I would marry before my 21st birthday. It's like this dance we are having, I just want every little step to be one step closer to being understood by someone who will allow me freedom to rule the kingdom the way I see fit."

Dean smirked taking this as his opportunity to tell Sonia his true feelings… However before he could even begin to confess them to the princess, he was interrupted.

"Mind if I cut in?" questioned a young man who yanked Sonia away from Dean. Sonia grimaced as this new man yanked her away from Sir Ambrose a little too hard for her liking. The other man had white sand dollar blonde hair and wore a smug look on his face.

"Prince Dolph Ziggler," grumbled Sonia under her breath as she turned to look over at Christian who was smiling widely and gesturing for her to dance with the potential suitor. The princess rolled her eyes and sadly huffed in defeat knowing if she didn't do what Christian wanted it would probably hurt her in the end. "You don't mind Sir Ambrose, do you?"

Dean frowned, but sadly nodded as he let go of Sonia's hands. There went his hope of talking to her about his feelings, however before Dean went off to stand beside his brothers to watch the spectacle of the celebration feast unfold before him, did he look closely at Ziggler.

"Do I know you from somewhere? You look really familiar?" questioned Dean with scrutiny.

If you had been paying close enough attention, you would have seen Dolph's right eye twitch nervously as he mumbled no to what Dean was asking him before leading Sonia as far as possible away from the merman turned human.

"Well, that went well," huffed Dean as he walked back over to Roman and Seth who stood watching Sonia be forced to dance with Prince Ziggler. "I was this close to telling her, and Pretty Boy over there interrupted me. The stupid show off..."

Seth scrutinized the Prince who was now dancing with Sonia just as closely as Dean had. Seth swore he had seen that man somewhere before. "What was his name?"

"Dolph Ziggler…"

Seth frowned and ran a hand through his hair. "Am I crazy? Or wasn't there a dolphin that worked with that pacific beardfish named Ziggler during the Rebellion?"

Dean looked at Roman who just shrugged passively. "You know, Seth, neither of us paid much attention to Atlantis politics."

"Especially when they involved mammals," Roman explained.

"Right," Dean agreed. "If it ain't involving us fish, why should we care?"

Seth sighed. "Maybe because that was the biggest revolution in our time? You know, against the tyrant we oppose?"

Dean and Roman glanced at each other again before Dean said, "I mean, when you put it like that…"

Seth shook his head, annoyed with his brothers; obliviousness. "Whatever. It's probably a coincidence. Maybe Dolph Ziggler is a popular name in the Surface World. I'm going to go find something to eat, this is a royal feast afterall."

Dean gazed longingly at Sonia for a few more minutes before realizing Roman was staring at him.

The older man gently placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Maybe it's a good thing you didn't tell her," Roman tried to reason. "A confession right now might have scared her off. How can we be sure she loves you like you loves us already?"

"We can't," answered Seth as he walked back up beside them with a handful of rolls, "But I got a plan, and tomorrow, we strike!"

"Of course you do," said Dean with a role of his eyes. "So tell us, oh great Architect, what is your plan this time and it better be good because we only have two sunsets left. So I better get one step closer to winning the Princess' heart."

As the brothers grouped together to discuss their strategic plan of attack, they did not see the Princess watching them longing to take part in their conversation. It looked like whatever they were partaking in and planning would be fun. She was quite the mastermind herself too afterall. Surely, she could help with whatever the brothers were trying to accomplish.

"Your highness?" questioned Ziggler causing her to snap out of her reverie and turn toward Dolph, "Did you not hear me discussing my escapades of defeating the great King Kevin Owens of the North numerous times? Isn't that a tale befitting of your adoration?"

"Yes, yes, it's all nice and wonderful, Prince Ziggler," sighed Sonia looking over to see Dean, Seth and Roman waving her goodbye. It seemed the trio was retreating away from the festivities already, but Sonia really couldn't blame them. They had a long day after all and even she considered watching her dance with others suitors painfully dull.

"May I cut in?" questioned another suitor. Sonia recognized this one as Prince Punk, who began to talk her ear off more than Dolph originally had. The man was obsessed with politics and the inner workings of the business economy in both their kingdoms. Sure, Sonia was going to be the Queen, but if she married this stupid idiot, she might as well walk out of her marriage right now.

"Princess Sonia!" shouted an overjoyed voice. The princess whirled around to see Prince John Cena quickly approaching her as the dance ended with Punk and he took his leave without another word, thank god.

Quickly, John grabbed Sonia's hand and lead her out of the ballroom toward the balcony.

"You looked like you needed some rescuing, your highness," stated Prince Cena as Sonia rolled her eyes.

"I was doing just fine on my own, thank you very much," muttered Sonia as she rolled her eyes already annoyed by Cena's antics.

"Listen, Princess Sonia, I'm not here to win your kingdom. I have heard tales of how you sailed the seven seas. You sound like a mighty marvelous young woman. I'd be honored if you enchanted me with one of your adventures from traveling around the globe."

"I'm not marvelous," Sonia blushed in embarrassment trying to keep it together and not show she was actually enjoying Princess Cena's company, "But if you insist, let me tell you about the time I sailed to the far away to the land known as Agrabah and I heard stories about the ever so famous Genie Jericho and how a young man known as AJ Styles set him free by earning his friendship."

Sonia retold her tales of the desert town where she had tried to find a magic carpet just like AJ Styles had in her story with excitement to Prince Cena. Maybe Prince Cena would be the one who let her have the freedom to rule the kingdom the way she so desperately wanted ? He was listening to her tales from her travels and he cared about her enough to get her out of that stuffy old castle after from those other princes. Prince Cena was also very, very, very attractive. Yes, Prince Cena would make an excellent husband and king for Excalibur.

Cena played off his enthusiasm very well. His listened to this dimwit of a Princess talk about her belief in magic nodding and making the correct sounds at the appropriate times. He had to play his cards right and win this Princess's affection. He needed a kingdom to rule and the last time a woman was in love with him, she had expected a marriage proposal.

Pshaw, she was a commoner, he needed royalty to ensure his place as the greatest of all time and this princess was his ticket to grandeur. He just needed to make Sonia think she had the freedom and rights she craved while he was with her. However, there was only one problem in his almost unstoppable plan.

It wasn't Prince Punk who wouldn't shut up about politics and the economy, that loser had himself out of the running before it even started. It certainly wasn't Prince Ziggler who wouldn't leave the poor young woman alone by dictating her with boisterous tales about his glory. No, it was that one commoner and his friends who had showed up out of thin water. Prince Cena had never seen any of them before, but the Princess seemed to have taken a liking to the one known as Dean Ambrose.

Prince Cena couldn't have that, no, absolutely not, he would make sure this Dean Ambrose fellow looked like an utter fool and the Princess would have nothing left to do but to reject him.

Soon enough this kingdom of Excalibur would be his. This little princess didn't know the strength of the hurricane known as John Cena that was about to hit her and take her to her knees.


	12. Beyond Our Wildest Dreams

**Captain's AN:** It's Thursday, folks and you know what that means?! Time for an update on this story! You are all in for a treat with this chapter. It's a nice long chapter for all of you so be sure to enjoy! As always feel free to leave a review and tell us what you think! :)

 **Disclaimer:** After over a dozen chapters, we never acknowledged that none of these characters belong to caylendar and I with the exception of Princess Sonia, who is our own personal creation. But if WWE decides to do a Shield Reunion Little Mermaid storyline, you can thank caylendar and I for writing this. Let's dive into the rest of the story!

 **Chapter 11: Beyond Our Wildest Dreams**

The next day proved to be a beautiful, sunny one in the kingdom of Excalibur. Edge and Christian had thought it would be a brilliant idea for the princess to lead all her suitors on a tour of the kingdom. Surely, it would boost the moral of the townspeople to see their princess out and about. It seemed for these last few months, the townspeople had been depressed about losing their beloved king, but whenever the princess came down to the village to visit, they perked up. Maybe it was how she knew many of the townspeople by name, or maybe it was her willingness to help out if any of her people who were in need. Whatever the reason, the people of Excalibur loved Princess Sonia and cherished the times she visited with them.

The brothers thought it would be great to finally see the rest of the Surface World, except there was one tiny problem...

"What in Neptune's name is horseback riding?" questioned Dean as he paced back and forth in front of the horse stable nervously awaiting the arrival of the princess. Seth and Roman had gone to find the three of them horses to borrow for the ride the princess was leading. "I'm going to make an utter fool of myself. I can't do this. I can't do this."

"You can and you will do this," Roman announced as he walked up to Dean handing him the reins of one of the horses he was leading. "As Seth explained to me, it's just like riding the giant sea horses back home. It won't be that bad Dean, plus even if you are bad at it, Sonia will probably happily help you out."

"I hope you're right," mumbled Dean as he accepted the horse's reins from Roman as he watched the other suitors maneuver onto the backs of their horses and Dean followed suit. After falling on the ground several times (and being pretty sure the horse was laughing at him), Dean successfully got on the young mare just as the princess trotted up on her horse.

"Good morning everyone," greeted Christian as he walked up beside the young woman who was on her horseback, "I hope you are all well this fine morning. We hope you slept well and are looking forward to the tour of the kingdom, after that you are free to go about your day however you please. Her majesty has some other royal commitments that take precedence today, so she will be sparse for the rest of the day, so be sure you make the most of your time with her now. I'll leave you to it then."

As soon as Christian was out of sight, Sonia smirked at the suitors. She wasn't interested in them recapping their tales of wonder to her yet again for the millionth time, she had another idea in mind. It was just like her to have a little fun with these moron princes. However, she was surprised the Shield brothers were there too, but they could participate in her scheme plus she for some reason she felt a desire to spend more time with Sir Ambrose.

"Here is how this is actually going to work," Sonia announced as she trotted her horse in front of all the others. "You are going to race to that apple tree and back, who ever wins the race will join me on the tour of the kingdom. The rest of you are dismissed for the rest of the day after that, understood?"

Grumbles from all the suitors could be heard while Dean looked down at the mare he was sitting atop. How was he going to win this race so he could spend the rest of the day with the Princess? He'd never ridden one of these horse creatures in his life before, it seemed very unlikely he would succeed.

Sure, they had whatever Seth's plan was for tonight to fall back on if necessary, but seriously this would be a waste and they would be one day closer to not achieving their goal. He couldn't let that happen, no he had to try. What had Seth said to the Sea Witch before she turned them human?

They weren't giving up before they even started.

Dean positioned his horse next to the others, but he made a horrible mistake. He positioned himself right next to Prince Cena.

Prince Cena smirked at his good fortune of seeing the dimwit commoner Ambrose take his mark next to him for the horse race. If there was one thing Prince Cena was good at, it was making others look like complete fools, and he certainly was about to do that.

Roman positioned himself and his horse between Prince Punk and Prince Ziggler. His big brother instincts were telling him Dean was going to need all the help he could get with this one. Speaking of help, the Samoan couldn't help but wonder where their littlest brother had taken off too. Seth was probably trying to talk to the horses knowing him.

"Alright, on your mark! Get set! GO!" cried the Princess as all the men on horseback took off zooming toward the apple tree.

Immediately, Prince Cena was in the lead blowing dust in the others faces as his horse sprinted toward the tree. Prince Ziggler and Prince Punk were having problems with their horses as neither had moved from their spot, and it was as if the horses were glued to their spots not wanting to move which was odd, but Sonia didn't care. She really didn't want to spend time with either of them anyway.

Sir Ambrose and Sir Reigns were close on Prince Cena's tail.

Prince Cena rounded the tree first while Dean was hot on his heels with Roman bringing up the rear. The princess smiled as she watched the spectacle unfold, surely any of these men would be wonderful to spend the day with touring the kingdom.

Princess Sonia was so busy watching the three men race their horses she didn't see a black bullet rush past her. The bullet made record time to round the apple tree and pass up Sir Reigns in the process.

"Give it up, Ambrose," mouthed Cena as he spurred his horse to go faster, but then quickly changed his mind. He decided to fall back a little and use some dirty tactics to win this race. "You are just a commoner, the Princess has no use for you. You aren't even a real man."

Dean shook his head and ignored Cena, yet wondered how the prince knew the truth about him. Dean knew he couldn't play mind game with this clown right now. He had to focus on winning the race; that was the important component. He had to win. He had to make Sonia love him as much as he loved his brothers. He had to keep Seth from losing his soul. He had to win.

The merman turned human was so focused on these things that he missed Prince Cena spurring the back leg of the mare he was on. Dean went flying as the mare bucked him off and into the grass. The young man crashed hard onto the ground into a heaping pile of grass clippings.

"Owwwww…" he moaned as he gingerly sat up as Roman quickly came up beside him to make sure he was alright and dismounting the horse in the process.

"Ha ha, told you, you didn't belong loser," muttered Prince Cena as he pulled the reins on his horse to slow it down a bit. He would savor his victory and spending the rest of the day with the Princess touring the kingdom meeting his new peons.

Slowing down though proved to be Cena's mistake as a rush of black zoomed past him and crossed the finish line first as he saw a figure standing beside the Princess.

Seth Rollins smirked at the prince knowing he had won the race fair and square. All those years of giant seahorse riding certainly had paid off in the end, even if Roman and Dean thought they were stupid. A giant seahorse and a regular horse were just cousins in the animal kingdom, it made sense Seth was a pro at riding one.

Sitting on her horse beside Seth though was an irritate and steaming Princess Sonia, Prince Cena noticed. He then could see her rage was centered on him. Uh oh.

"How dare you endanger another person!" angrily yelled the Princess as she trotted her horse toward Cena. "I thought you were unlike the others, John, but you are just another selfish, arrogant prince. If you are going to recklessly endanger other people, people who under my care, my people, you can leave my kingdom now. I do not want you here, get out."

"But Princess…"

"GET. OUT. NOW."

With that, Prince Cena took his leave and headed back to the palace to collect his things; it seemed his plan had gone horribly awry.

After dismissing Prince Cena, Sonia quickly dismounted her horse and ran over to Dean, crouching beside him and Roman in the grass.

"Are you alright? I didn't expect that to happen. I should have known better. Those moron princes can't be trusted," Sonia said shaking in her head a bit upset as she kneeled on the ground beside Dean.

"I'm alright Princess," Dean said as she smiled at him weakly. "I just wish I would have won."

"Well bro," Seth said trotting his horse up beside them. "I was thinking since we are all guests in the kingdom, I was wondering if Princess Sonia could show us all the things that happen here together. That is, if that's alright with you, your highness? I'd love to share my spoils of victory with my brothers."

Sonia smiled sweetly as she got to her feet. "I don't see a problem with that at all, Sir Rollins. I do think all three of you could benefit from getting out of that dreary old castle. If you are alright, Dean we can go now, and you all can experience the village and meet my people."

"Of course I'm alright, your highness. I just need to brush myself off," answered Dean as Roman helped pull him to his feet.

"Alright, but I think we've had enough horseback riding for today. We'll take the carriage," Sonia answered with a smile as she and the brothers lead their horses back to the stables.

 **Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta**

Dean spent the majority of the carriage ride trying to casually brush off Princess Sonia's concern over his scraped knees; he gruffly repeated he was perfectly fine, but the Princess was still concerned nonetheless.

Seth smirked at Roman and raised his eyebrows as if Roman hadn't noticed the princess fawning over their brother. Roman just smiled and nodded to placate the younger merman-turned human.

When they arrived, the carriage driver swiftly opened the door and helped the princess out with the Shield brothers following her. As the brothers took in the sight of the bustling town square, they couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by all the people. Sure, there had been quite a few people at the ball the night before; however, there had also been some semblance of order. Here in the square, there were people everywhere, milling about their business.

The brothers watched as Princess Sonia waved back at several people who greeted her. People sure loved and adored her here in Excalibur.

"Come on, gentleman. Since there is no way I would be able to show you the entire kingdom in one day (even though I would love to do so), I decided to bring you to one of my favorite places. This is the town square. As you can see, this also leads into the market. We're actually going there today. This way I can introduce you to a couple of people," Sonia said as she began leading the brothers down one of the roads to the market.

The boys took in the new environment with peaked interest. After being exposed to the general bustle of the market for a little bit, the boys grew more and more comfortable with the hectic nature of the marketplace

Dean spotted a stand with a wood carver who was carving a fork out of a piece of driftwood. In his excitement he grabbed Sonia's hand and pulled her towards it.

"Oh, you like whittling? I didn't realize," Princess Sonia said with a smile.

"Whittling?"

Sonia raised her eyebrows. "Wood carving?"

Dean gave Sonia a confused look.

"Oh, I get it...Or at least, I think I do. Do you just like forks?"

Dean nodded, smiled and then remembered what had happened in the Grotto several days earlier with Triple H and his henchmen. "I collect them… I mean I used to collect them."

Sonia frowned. "Did you lose your collection when you became shipwrecked?"

Dean sadly nodded not wanting to go into the details of how exactly he lost his collection. However, Sonia quickly smiled back at him with an idea. She didn't really understand the appeal, but who was she to criticize someone else's hobby? "Excuse me," she said to the wood carver as she handed over some coins from her purse. "I would like to purchase that fork."

The wood carver smiled. "Thank you, Your Majesty, this is a huge compliment to my work."

"Princess, you don't have to do that," Dean said.

Sonia grinned. "I know, but this is good for his business as well." She thanked the wood carver as he handed her the wrapped up fork, and she handed it to Dean. "There you are: a one of a kind addition. This way you can start a new collection to replace the one you lost."

"Thank you, Princess!"

While Dean and Sonia were frequenting the whittling stand, Roman and Seth were still exploring the market. Seth's eyes zeroed in on a stand which sold freshly caught fish where an imposing mammoth of a man was currently holding what must have been a four hundred pound tuna by the tail with only one hand.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Paul Heyman! And this is my partner and fisherman for this here stand, BROOOCK LESNAR! Step right up because we have the best quality, the most savory, the biggest fish in all of Excalibur!"

Seth nudged Roman in the side with a horrified expression on his face.

"What, Seth?"

Seth pointed to the fish stand without saying anything. He glanced at Roman with wide eyes.

Roman patted him on the shoulder, watching transfixed as Brock turned around, only to swing the huge fish over his head to slam it on the stand's counter. He then grabbed a cleaver and chopped clean through the fish's head. The force of the blow caused the head to roll off the counter and onto the floor where it stopped at Roman and Seth's feet.

"Neptune, I think I'm going to be sick," Seth mumbled as he stared into the tuna's eyes.

Roman glared at Brock and Heyman.

"Hey buddy! Do me a favor and toss me that head!" Heyman said.

"Nononono," Seth kept muttering under his breath.

Roman carefully bent down to grab the tuna head, and stood there holding it for several seconds.

"I swear he looks familiar," Seth whispered as he stared at the tuna, "Is that Mr. Jenkins from next door? Oh god, I think it is!"

Sonia and Dean caught up to the brothers. Dean was still busy gazing at his wrapped up fork with a big grin on his face while Sonia was looking at Roman with a bit of concern. She glanced at the fish head held in his hands and at the _Supplex City_ fish stand. Sighing, she grabbed the head and walked it over to Heyman. "Mr. Heyman, you should really consider not selling something that landed on the street. It's filthy."

Heyman nodded. "That you are right, Your Majesty! We shall use this as bait instead! Don't you worry!"

Sonia raised her eyebrows not buying what Mr. Heyman was selling.

Heyman held up his hands in a pacifying gesture. "Princess Sonia, I'm taking your advice seriously! You have my word."

"Okay, Mr. Heyman, I believe you."

Heyman grinned as a couple customers walked up. "Excuse me, Princess. I need to help these clients."

"Of course," Sonia said as she smiled at the customers.

The group left the stand to continue their tour. Roman was walking with his arm thrown around Seth's shoulders; both were pretty traumatized by the fishmonger stand.

"I apologize for Mr. Heyman, gentlemen. He's an eccentric salesman. Anyway, I want to introduce you to some of my favorite people. I don't get to see them too often because I normally get tied down by all of my royal duties and responsibilities, so it can be difficult for me to find opportunities to make my way down here."

"That sounds frustrating," Seth said finally composing himself after the incident.

Sonia nodded. "It is, but it's a necessary evil. No one likes to deal with the bureaucratic nonsense, but I have to. I want to rule my kingdom, so I need to be apart of all the kingdom's affairs. Oh and here we are!"

Sonia led the brothers into the gazebo in the middle of the square. "Hi everyone!"

"Oh, it's Princess Sonia!" One man who was holding a trombone said.

"Hello Princess," another holding a trumpet greeted.

"Ooooohh, it's Princess Sonia! Don't you dare be sour! Bow to our favorite Queen-To-Be! And feel the power!"

Sonia laughed light heartedly. "Hey Big E! Thanks for the great intro."

"My pleasure, Princess."

"I wanted to introduce you to my new friends. This is Dean, Seth, and Roman. I want you to meet Xavier, Kofi, and BIg E. They are the New Day! Some of the best musicians in all of Excalibur."

"Oh Princess," Kofi said, gushing as Xavier pretended to act coy. "You're just saying that!"

Sonia grinned. "I mean it and you all know it, you goofs. Why else would you get all the invitations to play at all the royal functions? Speaking of which, we really missed you last night. Your music would have greatly improved the evening."

"We're disappointed, too. We had to help some friends with a situation; otherwise, you know we would have been there, Princess," Kofi said.

"Oh, speaking of whom," Xavier said as a very tall man and a shorter man with crazy hair appeared at the entrance to the gazebo. "Cass, Enzo! Come on in!"

"Princess, have you met Cass and Enzo?" Kofi asked.

Sonia grinned. "Actually, I know them very well." She introduced the duo to the Shield brothers.

Seth asked, "How do you know the Princess?"

Enzo beamed at Sonia and bowed with an elaborate flourish. Cass glanced down at Enzo and said, "We owe the Princess, here, a lot. She helped us out of a bad spot."

Enzo made a couple of odd hand gestures and inclined his head at the Princess once again.

Cass interpreted for the group by saying," Zo says that the Princess is a real guardian angel."

Sonia blushed. "I'm not a guardian angel, but I really am glad I was able to help you out. "

"Good thing you did cause Zo would've been a real goner otherwise," Cass said, casting a concerned look at the smaller man. He saw the confused looks that the Shield brothers were throwing his way, and he explained, shortly, "I found myself in a bit a trouble a while back, and Zo saved my life. But along the way, those haters…they did something not so nice."

Enzo opened his mouth, and everyone but Cass winced at the sight of his missing tongue.

Cass patted Enzo on the shoulder. "But we were lucky when we happened onto the Princess who was visiting the town we were in. She was able to get us the best medicines and doctors for Enzo."

Enzo signaled again with his hands, and Cass said, "Yeah, I completely agree with you Zo. We owe her our lives."

Sonia shook her head, smiling softly. "You know that's not necessary. I'm positive we're even after Enzo agreed to be Poet Laureate."

Kofi grabbed a bag sitting on one of the benches and handed it to Enzo. "Just what you two ordered. My sister-in-law sends her love." He shot a glare at the chortling Xavier and Big E. "She told me specifically to say that, and you know better than to cross her."

Xavier shuddered. "You're right."

"You'd have to be crazy to get on her worse side!" Big E said.

Enzo smiled widely as he pulled out the new pair of shoes. He placed his fingers by his mouth and pulled his hand forward towards Kofi.

"Hey, it's no problem, Zo."

Xavier glanced over at the Shield brothers. "Kofi's sister-in-law is a cordwainer."

Big E rolled his eyes. "Who uses that word?! Normal people use shoemaker to describe it! And that's all you need!"

"E! Just because people say something one way, does not mean that's the way they should say it!"

Kofi nodded. "He had a point, E."

The group continued to talk, and the Shield brothers warmed up to Sonia's friends.

While the group continued to chat, Seth broke off to talk to Xavier, privately. Roman glanced at them with raised eyebrows. What was his little brother planning? He saw Seth beam at Xavier and shake his hand as they joined the group once again.

Sonia sighed. "I guess we should head back to the castle. I have some royal affairs I must attend to this afternoon."

As Sonia said goodbye to the group, Seth grabbed Dean's arm while pulling him aside and whispering instructions in his ear. He raised his eyebrows at Dean.

Dean wrung his hands nervously. "You think that'll work?"

Seth nodded. "Of course, just make sure you ask her before she disappears for the afternoon."

When the Shield brothers and Sonia turned to leave, Seth grabbed Roman's arm and practically dragged him ahead, so Dean could talk to Sonia with more privacy.

"Princess Sonia, I really enjoyed spending the morning with you."

Sonia smiled. "I did as well. I've had more fun today than I have had in a quite while."

Dean grinned. "I was wondering if you would accompany me on a boat ride in the lagoon this evening?"

Sonia grinned. "I would love to. It will be a well welcomed break after all the politics I'll be dealing with this afternoon. I look forward to it, Dean."

Sonia walked a little farther ahead as Dean fist pumped his hand in the air as Seth looked on with a smirk. Both of them had a good feeling that tonight would be the night Dean would win the Princess's heart.


	13. Kiss The Girl

**Captain's AN:** Here's the next chapter! :) I got nothing witty to say so here you go!

 **Caylender's AN:** Sorry if you clicked on this chapter and it was all computer mumbo jumbo. I reposted this chapter, so hopefully it's fixed. Technology...

 **Disclaimer:** We do NOT own this Disney song. So come on and SHALALALALALALA please review!

* * *

 **Chapter 12: Kiss The Girl**

"Move your fins, I can't see a thing!" chided Roman as he crouched down beside Seth in the tall weeds surrounding the lagoon. The two brothers had told Dean he would be on his own for the boat ride tonight with the Princess, however they just couldn't stop themselves from spying.

"Shush! Do you want them to know we are here?" questioned Seth as he watched the sunset and dusk set upon them while visibly gulping, "Only one day left…"

"Nothing has happened with her yet! How can we be sure she loves Dean as much as he loves us?" Roman said shaking his head in worry, they certainly were going to cut this one close.

"Don't worry Big Brother, there's a reason all the fish under the sea call me the Architect! I planned for this when we were in the village today. Come on!" Seth announced as he grabbed Roman's hand and lead him off to the other side of the lagoon toward a large willow tree.

Meanwhile, Princess Sonia and Dean were enjoying their boat ride. Princess Sonia smiled awkwardly as Dean tried to think of something to say to the woman he had admired from afar for so long. He wanted to ask her what she thought of his new fins, what she loved about the ocean, what her favorite type of fish was, but he had a feeling none of those things would be appropriate for this situation. What did human people talk about in situations like this?

Princess Sonia on the other hand was thinking about the man she had seen when she awoke on the beach after her drowning. She wanted to meet that man with the piercing ocean blue orbs. For some reason and she couldn't put a finger on it, this Dean Ambrose fellow gave her the same feeling the man in the ocean had. How odd?

"So Sonia," Dean attempted finally finding his voice as he continued to paddle the small dilapidated boat across the lagoon, "The tour of the kingdom today was amazing. I never knew so many wonderful people lived in Excalibur and the amount of trade that is done here."

The Princess turned to face the young man, "It's astounding, isn't it? The sea helps my kingdom flourish with all the things it provides. We truly are lucky people, I just hope whoever I chose to wed accepts the townspeople as friends and cares for them like I do."

Dean nodded as he again began to paddle the boat after stopping to listen to the Princess talk. He could have told her then about his feelings, but Roman's words from the night before about it being too early still haunted him. He shied away once again from telling the young woman his true feelings.

"He's choking out there, Seth," Roman whispered, "We need to do something to help him now."

Seth nodded before parting the branches of the willow tree and pulling Roman inside. The trio known as the New Day stood there giving them a welcoming nod. Seth turned and looked at the trio of musicians who began to play their instruments, "Alright Xavier, like we discussed in the square this morning! We've got to create the perfect mood."

A symphony played as Seth conducted and Roman watched on in amazement. His little brother certainly was a man of many talents both on land and under the sea. Roman could only hope Seth did not lose those talents if they failed at their task and he lost his soul to Stephanie. He didn't want Seth to become soulless shell with sellout stamped across his heart.

"Do you hear something?" questioned the Princess as she looked around in surprise at the wonderful music she was hearing, "I think I know this tune too, my father use to sing it to my mother when I was a little girl."

"Oh really?" questioned Dean as he continued to row across the lagoon, "How does it go?"

Quietly the Princess began to hum to Dean before starting to sing, "There you see her, Sitting there across the way, She don't got a lot to say, But there's something about her, And you don't know why, But you're dying to try, You wanna kiss the girl."

Dean smiled softly as the Princess sang to him. Her voice cracked a bit when she sang, but that was something he admired about her. Perfection was overrated, but in his eyes she didn't need to have a strong set of pipes to win his heart. Her voice enchanted him as she continued to sing the song she knew by heart from her childhood.

"Yes, you want her, Look at her, you know you do, It's possible she wants you too, There's one way to ask her, It don't take a word, not a single word, Go on and kiss the girl (kiss the girl)."

Sonia saw the smile spreading across Dean's face as he listened to her sing. She knew she wasn't the best singer, but he seemed to be so entranced. Plus this song was one of her favorites and to see him taking such an interest made her heart sing in happiness, so she continued on.

"Shalalalala, My oh my, Looks like the boy's too shy, Ain't gonna kiss the girl, Shalalalala, Ain't that sad, it's such a shame, Too bad, you're gonna miss the girl, go on and kiss the girl (kiss the girl)"

Seth turned around to see Roman staring through the long willow tree's branches.

"Come on Dean, don't miss your chance," Roman whispered as Seth nodded in agreement.

"Shalalalala, My oh my, Looks like the boy's too shy, Ain't gonna kiss the girl, Shalalalala, Ain't that sad, it's such a shame, Too bad, you're gonna miss the girl, Shalalalala, Don't be scared, You better be prepared, Go on and kiss the girl, Shalalalala, Don't stop now, Don't try to hide it how, You wanna kiss the girl, Go on and kiss the girl, (kiss the girl), (oh, ohnoo..), (kiss the girl, kiss the girl), Lalalala, Lalalala, Go on and kiss the girl, Lalalala, Lalalala, Go on and kiss the girl"

Dean saw his opportunity and stopped rowing the boat. He took Sonia's hand in his as he brushed a loose strand of hair out of her face. Quietly, just loud enough for him to hear, she kept singing.

"Come on bro, kiss the girl!"

"Kiss the girl, little brother!"

"Come on and kiss the girl," finished the Princess as Dean leaned forward and was mere inches from her face just as she leaned forward too and…

Toppled out of the boat into the blue lagoon with a boisterous crash.

Seth and Roman let out a groan in unison while throwing their heads back in frustration, they had been so close to getting her to kiss him and seeing if she loved Dean like he loved his brothers.

"I guess it's not written in the stars tonight for them, is it?" questioned Seth as he shook his head while dismissing the New Day, "We tried at least."

"Little brother," Roman chided putting a hand on Seth's shoulder, "I think we are going about this whole thing the wrong way."

"Why do I sense that you have a plan and I'm about to be outdone?"

"Because Seth, I do, and you can believe that."

Seth withheld another groan as Dean pulled Sonia up out of the lagoon with him and took a seat on the shores by the big willow tree where his brothers were hiding.

"Well that was most eventful, I think it's time to head back to the castle, don't you?"

Dean looked at the ground defeated and nodded his head. This was supposed to be his chance to win the Princess over, but sadly fate decided to have the boat topple over. Dean wondered why that had happened, it didn't seem right. He had limited experience with them, but to the best of his knowledge, boats just didn't topple over without there being a cause.

But that's when he saw it… better yet them.

Twin eels circling around where the boat had tipped. One of the pairs of glowing yellow eyes met his, giving him a look full of remorse.

Stephanie, the Sea Witch's minions. He didn't know why the evil witch would interfere, but she only had influence under the sea, and lucky for Dean, he was a member of the Surface World, for now at least.

"Come on your majesty, let's get you back to the castle before anything else goes awry. I'm sure Edge and Christian are wondering where you are." Dean extended his hand to the Princess. To his surprise, she happily took it as they began to walk back to the palace hand in hand.

Dean couldn't help but glance back at the lagoon to see that the eels were now gone, but he couldn't help but have a sinking suspicion they were being watched by someone under the sea who certainly didn't want him to succeed at winning Sonia's heart and saving Seth's soul.


	14. If Only Part I

**Caylender's A/N:** Here's the next chapter. It's brotherly fluff. Hope you like it. :D

 **Disclaimer:** We don't own any recognizable characters. I mean do we look like Vince McMahon? Well, you have no clue what we look like...Take my word; we're not him!

 **Chapter 13: If Only Part I (Seth Interlude)**

Right by the shore of the castle, there was a staircase that lead down to the ocean. The waves would occasionally brush against it if the tide was high enough, but tonight there was a good amount of beach between the ocean and the castle.

Dean sat on one of the steps watching the waves gently roll up onto the beach. With his arm propped on one knee and his hand supporting his jaw he stared out into the great blue yonder.

What was he going to do? He had one day left to see if the Princess loved him as much as he loved Seth and Roman. Maybe she already did love him like that but he didn't know and if he didn't know he couldn't save Seth. If he couldn't save Seth, Seth would become Stephanie's slave and who knows what would happen to him and Roman? They'd probably still be forced to join Hunter's inner guard… if not worse if the tyrant king found out they had become human and what they had been up to here on the Surface..

Was there even hope that Sonia loved him like that anyway?

"This is hopeless," sighed Dean as he got up and walked to the water and put his feet in. He sure did love being up here, but he missed swimming and chasing his brothers in the bright blue ocean, but fun had vanished long ago when they were forced to grow up rather quickly. He remembered meeting Seth when they were just young merboys. Seth had managed to get himself tied up in a seaweed bog and it had been Dean who had to get him out.

Those were the times before the revolution, before they grew up, before all of this being forced to join the inner guard of the tyrant king. They were young, innocent little mermen who didn't know any better and weren't putting their souls on the line for freedom and true love.

"You miss being down there, don't you?" questioned a voice as Dean turned around to see Seth standing on the steps looking at him with a sad smile on his face.

"Yes... no... I don't know," sighed Dean in a hem haw manner, "I love being up here. I just wish it wasn't under these circumstances. I love Sonia. Have from the day she originally dropped her fork into the ocean those many moons ago. I just… I just… I don't want to lose you little brother."

Seth slowly walked over to Dean and placed an arm around the elder man's shoulders, "I'm not going anywhere, you know that. You're going to win Sonia's heart tomorrow and we're going to stay up here. We won't be slaves for anyone and I won't lose my soul. It will be the happy ending all three of us deserve."

"How do you know?" questioned Dean a bit worried, "I feel like this is all useless because every time I want to tell her, something happens. A cocky prince interrupts me, I get bucked off a horse, Stephanie's little eel minions knock over our boat-"

"Wait, what do you mean?" questioned Seth concerned.

"Tonight in the lagoon when I was once again this close to kissing Sonia and finding out her feelings, Stephanie's eels knocked over the boat." Dean answered shaking his head, "It's like she wants us to fail on purpose."

Seth shook his head. He didn't like this. If Stephanie was trying to stop Dean from getting the Princess that must have meant she had big plans for Seth and his soul. Something told Seth those weren't good plans either.

"It all seems quite hopeless, doesn't it?" questioned Dean in defeat yet again, "Trying to make her love me as much as I love the two of you, who thinks some stipulation like that up anyway?"

The Architect really didn't have an answer for his older brother, but Dean couldn't talk like this. If he did, that meant Stephanie won and they couldn't have that. They still had one day left.

"It's not hopeless at all, Dean. You know every time I see Sonia look at you her mouth always turns into a smile and her eyes brighten up. It's a complete flop from when she looks at the other suitors, who I'm pretty confident, she wants to murder in their sleep. The reason she fusses over you so much is because she cares about you with her heart. She's a good, sweet, kind-hearted girl, Dean and I'm sure she'll love you as much as you love us soon, if not already."

"I hope you're right, Seth."

"You know I'm right, always am, always will be." Seth said as he embraced his older brother in a tight bear hug, "For what it's worth, you couldn't have picked a better human girl to fall in love with, Dean."

Dean grinned broadly as he embraced his little brother's hug and ruffled his hair. All hope wasn't lost after all. They did still have until sunset tomorrow to meet their end of Stephanie's deal.

"Now, since you're missing the ocean, how about we have a little fun?" questioned Seth as he speared an unsuspecting Dean into the ocean as the two brothers began to play wrestle in the surf getting soaked in the process.

Their laughter could be heard throughout the kingdom and even drew the Princess out of her chambers as she stood on the balcony. Dean glanced up at her a few times before he finally saw Roman talking to her and she was smiling gently down at him. But right now, this was his time to spend with Seth.

For just a little while all their problems were forgotten about, there was no Princess, no evil sea witch, no crazy deal, no tyrannical dictator; it was as if they were those young merboys who used to play together all those year ago under the sea.

They were just as they should be, brothers.


	15. If Only Part II

**Caylender's AN:** So I was supposed to post this yesterday...I'm not sure how I forgot. In my defense, Captain forgot, too. Maybe we can blame Roman? But anyways, how about that pay-per-view yesterday? The Miz v Dolph match was amazing. (I won't spoil who won in case someone hasn't watched it yet.) it told a great story, and I think it was the match of the night. What did everyone think of it?

 **Chapter 14: If Only Part II (Roman Interlude)**

Sonia sighed as she looked out into the ocean knowing she only had one day left to find a suitor. Christian and Edge were adamant about her losing her power if she did not choose by sundown tomorrow evening. She just wanted to be normal and have adventures, but no, that wasn't her life. Sonia was destined to do great things and be Queen of Excalibur for many years to come, but deep down in her heart of hearts, she didn't want that.

She was gladly watching Sir Ambrose and Sir Rollins play wrestle in the evening moonlight that was basking the beach and the ocean. Oh, how she wanted to have the freedom to take part in their games and not have to present herself in such a cordial manner. She wanted to have fun. She wanted to be free. She wanted to be noble, yet fair to the people of Excalibur.

"Sand dollar for your thoughts, your majesty?" questioned a deep baritone voice causing Sonia to jump sky high and twirl around to see Roman Reigns standing on the palace balcony with her. The Queen to be tried to catch her breath after Roman had scared her half to death.

"Sir Reigns, what are you doing up here?" asked the Princess as she turned her attention back to watching the ocean waves beat seamlessly against the shoreline.

"I couldn't sleep," Roman muttered quietly, "I should be asking the same thing of you, your highness? Isn't tomorrow a big day for you?"

Sonia scoffed in disgust, "It would be a big day for someone who wants to be Queen…"

Roman frowned at her response. He had not been expecting that response from the Princess at all. Dean had mentioned to him how she didn't want to marry any of the potential suitors that had been mingling about in the kingdom the last few days, but he didn't realize how severe it was.

"Why?" questioned Roman as he walked up to stand beside her on the railing.

"Freedom, Sir Reigns, freedom," answered the Princess with pride. "I know I can be Queen and I don't need a King to do it. If I marry, surely any normal man who wishes to be King will hold all the power and not let me have my freedom. I want my freedom to always be there. You probably don't understand do you?"

"Oh Princess, I think I understand more than you know." Roman sighed as he continued to stare out at the ocean. "Certainly, nothing is free. No matter how much you want it to be."

"You know," Roman explained looking out on the balcony watching his brothers tussle in the ocean seeing how much they missed having the freedom to just play and not hide in fear, "Dean does have a big heart. Do you know there was this one time that I got hooked in a really bad situation with these card sharks known as the Wyatts. They were the nasty gang in the Seven Seas. Man, was it bad. I thought I'd never get away from those guys! But here comes my little brother, Dean to save the day. He may not have thought the plan all the way through, but he'd do anything for family. His heart is as vast as any underwater sea trench."

The princess smiled as she watched Seth and Dean run up and down the shoreline splashing each other with a soft smile crossing her face.

"How did you meet each other?" the Princess caught herself asking as Roman's smile grew wide knowing he had enticed her with his story of Dean. Surely, he could spin more tales of Dean, Seth, and their adventures to showcase his brothers heart. Of course, Roman was taking a few creative liberties leaving out that this had all happened under the sea, but Sonia didn't need to know there were merpeople just yet.

"I met Dean and Seth on a day very similar to this one. It just so happened their was a very big net that hand entangled Dean when he had been out swimming," explained Roman as he trailed off remembering the day fondly.

It would be like this all night as the human-merman enchanted the young princess with the escapades about him and his blood brothers.

Sonia thoroughly enjoyed the tales of such mischievous, but good natured brothers. She listened to the sound of Roman's deep voice and smiled brightly whenever Dean glanced her way. She didn't fully understand why, but whenever she caught the gaze of his gorgeous blue eyes landing on her, she had a strange inkling she finally found her suitor. And her heart felt warm and complete...


	16. Poor Unfortunate Souls Part III

**Caylender's AN:** Good lord, I can't type out my penname; it's pretty bad. I really love the Stephanie section. I probably enjoy writing her way too much...Let's not look at those implications. But in my defense, Captain is just as bad. She wrote the second section, and she really enjoyed tapping into her evil villain side. :D I hope you enjoy this extra long chapter!

 **Chapter 15: Poor Unfortunate Souls Part III**

Stephanie cackled as she watched the disastrous scene from the enchanted bubble she had conjured up to scry on the former merman's attempts to woo the princess.

"Did you see his face, my little pretties? His eyes near popped out of his skull. And his face! His face was nearly as devastated as when I revealed the details of their contract. Priceless." The Stephanie wiped tears from her eyes. "Oh, that was funny."

Stephanie popped the bubble and meandered around the room. "But you girls waited a while before spoiling their evening. They were this close to kissing and sharing their undying love for each other."

Just as she floated past the Bellas, the Sea Witch spun around, so she was facing them. "In fact, if I didn't know any better, I would say you wanted their little date to go as planned!"

Nikki and Brie cowered away from the seething witch, and Brie shrieked pitifully in their defense.

Stephanie laughed. "Ohh, you poor things. I frightened you. Come here. Come here!"

The Bellas cautiously swam forward until they were floating before the Sea Witch.

Stephanie scooped them up in her arms and cradled them, almost lovingly. "I know. I know you would never disobey me! After all, it's in your contract."

Brie's warbled screech made the Sea Witch smile. "Yes, it's a subclause. I'm surprised this never came up before. If I give either of you an order, you cannot refuse. If you try, then I will be in your mind to compel you. Oh sweeties, even if you want to disobey me, you lack the action to make free will worthwhile. The only will you have is you _will_ do as I say."

Nikki stared at the bony ridges of the skeleton around them while Brie glared at the Sea Witch.

Stephanie laughed. "Oh, don't be like that. You should be thankful. My subclause saved you from punishment for refusing to do my bidding. This could have gone much worse if it wasn't for my generosity." She paused and carefully released the Bellas from her embrace. She turned away from the Bellas, and her voice darkened as she continued,

"You shouldn't be mad at me. We...I'm all you have left anyways. You both lost your lovers. That human man was a true horror that just goes to show you how males just want to use us. And Brie... Your love might have believed in a higher cause, but he didn't consider how dedicating himself to it might affect you. And it did! You were left alone and unloved. Ostracized, cast out because of what your husband did! You were better off dead. It's surely better to die than to become a monster."

The Sea Witch turned around once again, and for a moment, the twin eels could see the mermaid she once was; somewhere behind the hate filled purples and blacks of her eyes, there was soft blue ones gazing back at them. "Choosing someone else to love over you. Leaving you without a real reason. Cursing you to love a miserable existence! You should hate him! You should hate everything he is, was, and ever will be! But you don't, do you? Some part of you wants him to accept you once again, to love you!"

There was a long pause in which Brie looked at Nikki in confusion. Was the Witch even talking about the twins anymore?

The Sea Witch seemed to become self-aware once again, and in a flash of red, those blue eyes were buried and they glowed a crimson. "I am all you have in this world, so get used to it! I better not catch you two trying to get out of an order again! You will love to rue the day you think of disobeying me!

"Nikki! Go fetch me that jar of Sailors' Tongues. We need to figure out how to make sure the Shield brothers do not succeed. Even though you did stop the evening's events from progressing too far, it was far too close for my own desires. We'll just have to throw another obstacle in their way... " The Sea Witch paged through the Necronomicon to see if any spell or incantation jumped out at her. "Neptune...if only one of my pretties had sea blue eyes, this would be far easier."

Nikki came to the Witch with the jar of tongues secured safely with her tail wrapped around the middle.

"Hahaha! No, that's the Tongues of the Mermen." She carefully grabbed the jar from the eel. "See here? That's the tongue of Enzo Amore. I took great pleasure in slicing it from the cretin's mouth! Too funny, Nikki. Thank you, child; I was in need of a laugh."

Just as the Witch began to give Nikki more thorough instructions, a thunderous voice interrupted her.

"STEPHANIE!" bellowed Hunter as he entered his former beloved's chasm in anger. "My servants tell me you have something that rightfully belongs to me."

Stephanie looked up to find the King of the Seven Seas staring directly at her in annoyance as her eels slinked up beside her in a fear.

"Oh, don't be afraid, babies," soothed Stephanie as she rolled her eyes at Hunter and his stingray minions, Orton and Batista. "Hunter isn't here to hurt us; he just wants to know where those precious Shield brothers are, and why when his minions showed up to forcefully enlist them, there was no one at their home."

"I know you had something to do with it Steph," Hunter growled. "There were reports of humans swimming out in this part of the ocean two days ago and we both know no human would be able to handle that."

"Oh Hunter, you never did miss a beat did you?"

"I want them, Stephanie, especially Seth Rollins. There is something about him and I can't place it, but I see a lot of myself in that young merman. Give me them, now!"

"Sorry but they signed a legal binding contract, and I can't break it."

"You can't be serious?"

"Oh poor Hunter, you can't have everything you know? You'll just have to wait it out, unless…" Stephanie trailed off as she looked at one of Hunter's stingray minions. Stephanie smirked. "Unless, Randall here wants to volunteer himself to ruin the Shield brothers' little plan."

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"Oh didn't you know? Dean Ambrose fell in love with that human Princess. He wanted to win her heart and become human. You know the classic tale those parents tell their merchildren at bedtime? So I gave him and his brothers legs!"

"YOU DID WHAT?!" bellowed Hunter in anger.

Stephanie rolled her eyes in exasperation, "Oh please, it's not like I didn't have a Plan B. It just can now go into more effect since you brought your little minions with you. Randall here has the same vibrant ocean blue eyes as that merman, Dean Ambrose. I saw from my scrying that the Princess saw Ambrose's eyes when he saved her.

"You see, I turn Randall here human; with a little assistance from a hex, he enchants the Princess with some magic. In order for this to work, he'll need a mark." Stephanie paused for a moment as she considered. "Many sailors have tattoos...A small one on the wrist should be fairly inconspicuous."

Stephanie drew up a marking of an ancient eye from the stream of bubbles above her cauldron before turning back to her guests.

"It will glow and when the princess looks into his eyes, the spell will trick her into thinking she has found her true love, the man with the ocean blue orbs. Viola, we win. Shield brothers lose. They return to the sea to be your personal slaves just as you wished."

"Oh Steph, you're even more diabolical than I remembered. I love it! Do it! DO IT NOW!"

Stephanie smirked at Hunter as she began throwing bottles into her cauldron to cast the spell on Randy, but she had left out one tidbit of information. Her deal with the Shield brothers included her getting Seth's soul, and she did not plan on relinquishing it. After all, a deal was a deal. She of all people knew the importance of honoring her word.

So as Randy screamed in agony transforming into a handsome human, Stephanie cackled in happiness knowing she was going to finally get rewarded for all her sacrifice.

* * *

The fog had rolled in and Sonia stood on the steps of the castle where Dean had stood hours earlier. She couldn't sleep. Not tonight. She had a huge decision to make in the morning.

"What am I going to do?" sighed the Princess as she crossed her arms and stared out at the ocean in confusion. If only she had found that man with the ocean blue orbs who had saved her from the ocean that day, then she wouldn't have to worry about choosing one of those dimwit delusional princes who were attempting to court her.

"Sonia, sweetheart, what are you doing up at this hour?" questioned a voice that the young woman recognized as Edge as she quickly turned around. "It's almost sunrise, and you are still up… tomorrow will not bode well if you are completely exhausted."

"I should ask the same of you, Edge." Sonia chuckled at the royal advisor as he rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"It's close to sunrise, and we had to prepare for the celebration at the crack of dawn. It is a big day for the kingdom and yourself as you are well aware."

"I know," answered Sonia with another sigh, "I just… There's so much on my mind, Edge. I have no idea what I'm going to do. I just… I really don't want to choose one of those princes. But the man who I do want to choose, who has a heart of gold, who will make sure I have the freedom I desire, who will care about my people like they are his own, who would be perfect to be my suitor in my opinion. Sir Ambrose… he isn't royalty. He can't possibly be a choice, could he?"

"He is what you have been looking for and he does meet all of your requirements. Remember Sonia, your mother wasn't royalty either and that certainly did not stop your father from marrying her. You have always wanted to marry out of love, and you wanted someone who was warm, caring, kindhearted. Hell, that young man even has a wonderful family that he loves and protects. Just think about those things before you make your decision," answered Edge as he patted her on the shoulder. "I'm heading inside to go work on the preparations for the celebration, don't stay out here too long."

"I won't," Sonia called out after Edge as he headed into the castle. She needed to clear her head so she gathered up the skirts on her dress and headed down to the beach for a quick walk to mull over things.

Edge was right. Her father had married her mother out of love. The two of them had looked over Excalibur in a beautiful fashion. When they were alive and married, they had successfully ruled the kingdom and been loved by their people. Her father and mother both had the freedom to do as they pleased. They had been part of each other's worlds even if they were from very different ones at that. Her parents had also been warm and kind people who cared about everyone they met whether rich or poor, royalty or commoner, similar to how a trio of brothers acted toward her.

Ever since the day she found Dean, Seth and Roman washed ashore on the beach, they had shown her nothing but compassion and love. Seth always made her laugh and certainly taught her new things about sports she had never known before. Roman had taken the time to tell her stories of the world they had come from. Dean always made sure whenever he was with her that she was taken care of and never hurting. He let her voice her opinion on the important things like being able to speak openly about not wanting to marry the suitors who tried to court her. Or about how she wanted a man who cared about her people as much as she did. She could confide her secrets to him. When she was with Dean, she didn't feel like she was suffocating, no, she felt warm, she felt happiness, she felt his genuinity, she felt...

She felt like she was home.

Sonia stopped in her tracks on the beach. She knew what she had to do.

Quickly, the princess turned around to head back to the castle. She had to tell him how she felt about him; however, something out in the ocean caught her eye. Sonia stopped as a figure slowly began to rise out of the dreary morning mists coming from the ocean.

The figure waded toward her out of the surf holding it's hand out enticing her to take it. Soon enough, the young woman realized it was a man emerging from the sea and walking toward her.

That's when she saw them. His eyes.

The distinguishable, piercing ocean blue orbs that she saw on the beach that day. The blue eyes she had been searching all over the kingdom for.

"Your him. Your real," the Princess whispered as the man continued to approach her. The man only smirked at the Princess as she continued to stare in awe at what she was seeing. The golden light that was emanating from him though was causing the young woman's mind to become groggy. Her mind became wary and her eyes cloudy.

"Yes, little Princess, fall under the spell," Randy Orton hissed as he watched the young woman be captivated by the hex Stephanie had put on him when she made him human. "You will decree we will marry today at sunset tonight."

"I will decree I marry you at sunset," stated Sonia in a monotone voice. Randy smirked knowing the spell was just starting to work it's dark magic on the princess. "We must alert the kingdom at once of the wedding!"

Randy smiled once again as he took Sonia's hand in his, and together they walked back to the castle. Stephanie and Hunter were going to be pleased with him tonight when he returned home with the the merperson Shield brothers in tow. If there was one thing Randy enjoyed more than anything else, it was making sure people did not get a happy ending. He stared down at the glowing tattoo on his wrist. He knew Hunter would be pleased with his work today. This would definitely keep him off the King's bad side for quite a while, and Neptune knew, no one wanted to be on Hunter's bad side.

Randy chuckled thinking about how Dean Ambrose and his brothers certainly were not going to get the happy ending they wanted if anyone under the sea had anything to say about it. Those boys were going to be in for a devastating blow when they found out who the little Princess had chosen as a suitor. Maybe, if Randy was really lucky, it would even kill one of them.


	17. The Suitor

**Captain's AN: Got to run! Literally! I'm running out the door right now to head to the gym. Here's the next chapter!**

 **Chapter 16: The Suitor**

Dean woke the morning of the third day to overhear the chamber maids screaming with delight.

"Have you not heard? The Princess has FINALLY picked a suitor, and she's FINALLY in love!" screeched one of the woman in excitement outside his door, "It wasn't even one of the Princes who have been trying to court her these last few days. No, no! It was actually a man who she found on the shores of Excalibur."

Dean's heart fluttered with delight as he tumbled out of bed practically tripping over himself to get to where Seth and Roman were sleeping on the opposite side of the room.

"WAKE UP! WAKE UP!" cried Dean with a renewed vigor as he bounced up and down on the balls of his feet. "Princess Sonia has fallen in love with me! We're off the hook! Seth isn't going to lose his soul! We don't have to join Triple H's inner guard! We are going to be FREE and HUMAN FOREVER!"

"Dean, what the heck are you talking about?" grumbled a dazed and sleepy Seth as he fell onto the floor in confusion, and Roman began to rub the sleep out of his eyes still not understanding what his brother was muttering about.

"Sonia choose a suitor! She choose a suitor last night according to the chamber maids! And she didn't chose a Prince! She chose a man who she found on the shores of Excalibur! And aren't we the only ones she found out there?!" shouted Dean as he quickly began running around the room looking for clothes. He had to get dressed and go see the Princess. She too must be so as excited as he was. "She choose me!"

Giving up his search for clothes, Dean ran out of the room rushing out into the castle to look for the princess in only his pajamas of all things. Quickly, Seth and Roman ran after him but were not able to keep up with their middle brother as in his excitement, he was as fast as a bullet.

As Dean rounded the corner into the ballroom, he stood atop the stairs just listening to the few people in the room. It seemed Edge and Christian were arguing heatedly with the Princess over something, but that didn't seem right. From what Dean had seen of her, Sonia would never argue with Edge and Christian like she was doing right now.

"Sonia, are you sure about this?" questioned Christian quite concerned.

"Yes, are you, my dear? Are you sure this is the decision you want to go with? Wasn't there someone else you were telling me about early this morning?" Edge echoed in the same tone as Christian's.

"No, you dimwitted twats," snapped Sonia as she growled at the two advisors, "If I told you this once, I've told you this a thousand times. This man who is standing beside me right now WILL be the man I marry at sunset today."

"But Son-"

"No, I am going to be your Queen, and you will do as I say. If you do not like it, don't let the door hit you on your way out of the castle," answered Sonia as she growled at her royal advisors, "Good help isn't that hard to find these days gentlemen, so if you want to keep your jobs, you will do as I say."

"Your highness!"

"No more discussion. Come, my love, we have much preparing to do before sunset."

And that was when Dean saw the other man looping his hand with Sonia's as the two began to descend up the staircase to where he was standing after overhearing what had transpired between the Princess and the royal advisors. Slowly, realization dawned on him; this tanned and toned man with a short crew cut and snake eyes was the man Sonia had chosen as her suitor. Dean could already tell this man's aura screamed danger, but yet the Princess had fallen for him. The young man frowned in confusions. This couldn't be right? He could have sworn the Princess cared about him. He could have sworn her eyes always glitter with a smile when she looked at him. He could have sworn she would help him save his brothers and himself from the dreaded fate of going back to the sea and living in an underwater hell.

She wasn't going to save him or his brothers. She wasn't going to be the hero after all.

The princess and the mystery suitor reached the top of the stairs as Sonia glanced over at Dean giving him a look of disgust whist rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"Can I help you with something… peasant?" Sonia stated in a tone that didn't seem like her at all.

"Sonia…" Dean attempted to stay something as his voice cracked with emotions, but the young woman raised her hand and shook her head.

"No, no, no. You do not get to call me that. I am going to be the Queen tonight and you will address me as such. Now, if you excuse me, my love and I have much to do in order to prepare for the wedding."

Dean frowned as he felt his heart breaking into a million tiny pieces that wouldn't be able to be glued break together. What had happened? This wasn't the woman he had fallen for; it couldn't possibly be. Sonia was sweet, caring, warm, and kind hearted. This woman was just a callous shell with hatred burning from her eyes straight into Dean's soul.

Wait, souls…

Seth...

Uh no…

A dreaded feeling crept through Dean as he heard his brothers finally catch up to him.

"Dean? Sonia? What's going on here?" questioned Seth quickly looking between the two concerned as he saw the look of disgust on Dean's face and the evil look on Sonia's. Roman who had been following closely behind Seth trying to catch his breath after running through the castle to try and catch up with their middle brother, also looked between the two in confusion and concern.

"Ugh," the Princess groaned in disgust. "The peasant has friends, of course. I don't have time for dealing with the little people right now. Today is my wedding day, and I am not having peasants like you dimwits ruining it. No get out of my sight."

With that, the Princess pushed her way passed Roman and Seth as she grabbed her lover's hand again in order to entangle it within her own. The tall, dark stranger smirked at the brothers like he knew something they didn't and chose to bask in their heartbreak for a few moments. The three of them looked gravely concerned about the predicament they had now just found themselves in.

"Are you coming or not, darling?" snapped the Princess annoyed as the mystery suitor quickly picked up his pace to join the Princess. Surely, the brothers would be naive enough to attend their wedding later today and then that was going to be when he would make the final strike in the plan Stephanie had told him to follow. He did always love it when an evil plan came together and everyone else's day was ruined.

Back in the ballroom foyer, the Shield brothers were left standing dumbfounded in the foyer of the ballroom.

"Dean?" questioned a concerned Roman as the older man waved a hand in front of the young merman turned human. "Come on buddy, please say something…"

"Yea man, come on, we'll figure out a contingency plan. There is always a Plan B. We still have until sunset. That girl wasn't the Princess we came to know the last couple days. She couldn't have been." Seth tried to reason to himself, Dean and Roman.

But then Seth stopped and thought for a second. At the end of the hallway, he could see the tall, dark man was grabbing at his wrist… that was glowing? Wait, from the small amount Seth had learned about human anatomy in the last several days, he knew that humans didn't have glowing body parts.

Hmmmm… he chewed on his lower lip. Seth had an inkling suspicion this had something to do with Stephanie, the Sea Witch. Dean had told him the Sea Witch's little minions had been the ones who sabotaged the boat road on the lagoon the day before. That human they had never seen before had to be one of Stephanie's lackeys, but Seth didn't have an answer as to who exactly it was, but Seth sighed knowing what they had to do in order to get an answer and he was pretty sure neither of his brothers were going to be gung ho about doing it after the events that just transpired.

"What do you guys say about crashing a wedding?"

 **Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta**

Dean sighed as he stared out at the ocean. How Roman and Seth had managed to get him here was beyond him. The duo had pretty much pushed and prodded the young man to the royal ship where the Princess and that mystery man were going to get married. The young merman turned human hadn't really wanted to be around people and just wanted to sulk, but the farthest he could get away from people was staring out at the ocean from the side of the royal ship.

It was odd. This had felt all like a dream a few days ago when he, Seth and Roman had been in the ocean staring up at Sonia on the royal ship.

Now, he was staring out into the ocean realizing this dream had become a nightmare.

At least at sunset this nightmare was going to be over and a new one was going to start when they returned to the ocean. He and Roman would be forced into enlisting into the Royal Guard and they'd officially lose Seth to the Sea Witch. He'd already lost Sonia today, so why not make it two for two with losing people he loved?

"Sir Ambrose?" questioned Christian concerned as he walked over with Edge in tow causing Dean to turn his attention back to the people on the boat, "What on earth are you doing here? I know we said all the suitors were invited to the wedding. But we assumed…we were not expecting you to attend since... Well, we saw how you looked at the Princess like she was the only visible on a cloudy night. To be honest, we were hoping… really hoping Sonia was going to choose you."

"Actually," Edge said, interrupting the two, "from the conversation Sonia and I had, I could have sworn she was going to pick you, Dean. I'm just sorry she didn't."

"You two would have been so wonderful and happy together," sighed Christian. "What came over her in the last 24 hours, I really don't know. It's like something possessed her and made her a royal pain. But there's nothing we can do…"

Edge nodded in agreement. "It's not like we can knock any sense into her. We tried talking to her this morning, and that was as successful as the man who tries to pick each salt crystal out of the sea…"

Christian shook his head. "not successful at all, which is weird since she normally considers what we say even if she disagrees. But really, I suppose what we are trying to say is that we really wish she would have chosen you, Sir Ambrose."

"Thanks fellas," Dean said as he turned to look back out at the ocean. "For what it's worth, I thought I really had a chance to be her final choice too."

"Kid," Edge stated putting a gentle hand on Dean's shoulder, "I wouldn't give up just yet."

Quickly, Christian shoved his elbow into Edge's gut as the other began to break into a coughing fit.

"If you excuse us, Sir Ambrose, we have some last minute wedding details to take care of," stated Christian while pulling Edge away from Dean.

"Yea, not a problem," Dean said as he sighed again turning his attention back to the ocean while trying to figure out where things had gone horribly wrong with Sonia. Maybe he just didn't know how to woo a human woman enough to make her love him.

Seth carefully slipped through the door which went below deck and quickly made his way into the deck to where Roman was standing.

"I don't understand why you thought this was a good idea," Roman said to Seth, sparing him a glance as he ran through his hair before turning back to watch Dean, Edge and Christian interact on the other side of the boat.

"Roman, we need to be here!" argued Seth. "I've been watching Sonia's so-called fiancé, and I don't trust what I see. Did you not see the glowing object on that suitor's arm that Sonia had chosen? Didn't you think there was something oddly familiar about him? The more I think about it, the more uneasy I feel."

"Now that you mentioned it," Roman stated rubbing his beard in thought. "I did think there was something off about that guy."

"Exactly and if my suspicions are right, Stephanie used her magic to turn one of her little minions human to sabotage Dean," stated Seth pointedly.

"But why?" questioned Roman a bit unsure why the Sea Witch would want to break their deal.

"I don't know… maybe because SHE'S EVIL!" Seth practically shouted in exasperation.

Rohan rubbed his bearded chin, thoughtfully. "If you're right, that would explain why the Princess has been acting so oddly."

"You know what else it would mean?"

"Sonia's in big trouble."

"Exactly, we need to find Dean and let him know immediately. Come on!"

The ocean really was something magnificent with the sun slowly going down. Ambrose sighed as the ushers began to tell the guests to take their seats for the wedding. Dean saw out of the corner of his eye, the groom walk to the front of the boat to take his spot beside the priest. The stranger gave Dean a sickening, yet evil smirk that caused his stomach to drudge up knots of dread in his stomach.

The young man felt a chill creep up his spin as he looked directly into the chosen suitor's eyes and could sense something familiarly sinister within them.

Wait, this feeling of dread was familiar… it was the same feeling of dread he felt when they were around the dreaded Sea Witch, Stephanie!

Dean's eyes widened and his jaw clenched. The reason Sonia had started act all out of character. The reason this mysterious stranger had shown up. The reason he had thought they had lost. Stephanie, the vile witch, was trying to sabotage him on purpose!

His beloved Sonia was now stuck in the middle of the Sea Witch's plot.

And Dean would be damned if he allowed Sonia to be hurt.


	18. The Tail

**Captain's AN: This is a long freaking chapter. If you experience a ton of anxiety, blame caylendar - she's diabolical. Wait, that's not true... I contributed to this chapter too. But seriously, please nobody have a heart attack!**

 **Chapter 17: The Tail**

The sun was just beginning to set when "Dean!" Seth called out as he dragged Roman over to where the third brother was sulking against the railing. He took a fugitive glance around them to ensure they weren't drawing any unwanted attention.

Dean didn't look away from Sonia's groom. His glare was a mix of hatred for Stephanie and her tricks and concern for Sonia.

"Dean! We need to talk. There's something you have to know...Are you listening to be, bro?"

Dean shot his brother an annoyed look. Just as he began to say a sarcastic retort in response, the New Day began playing the wedding march, signifying the commencement of the ceremony. His eyes zeroed in on Sonia as she appeared from the door to the cabin. She was wearing a floor-length silk dress. Her hair was partially pulled up with the rest tumbling down over her shoulders, and a lacy veil was delicately perched over her tiara, cascading lightly over her face.

Strangely enough, even though Sonia looked exquisite, her expression was blank: no trace of happiness or excitement. No emotions were showcased on her face.

"Dean!" Seth said grabbing Dean's arm. "Sonia's groom is one of Stephanie's minions! He enthralled Sonia, which is the only reason she's marrying the creep! I think the spell is tied to the tattoo on his wrist!"

"Tattoo?"

"He has a tattoo of an eye on his wrist. Sometimes it glows! I think if we can get rid the tattoo, we can break the spell."

Dean glanced around and he grinned when he saw some of the kitchen crew setting up a wedding cake with plates and forks nearby. He smirked and his eyes adopted a manic sheen. "I think I can handle that."

"Wait, Dean. What are you thinking?" Seth made to grab Dean's arm, but Roman stopped the littlest brother.

Roman shook his head at Seth. "I think he has this one handled. Trust him."

The two watched as Dean sprinted towards the cake and grabbed a fork off the table.

Dean ran back over towards the mystery man, who was standing at the front of the ship waiting for Sonia to walk down the makeshift aisle amid all the guests attending the wedding. In one fell swoop, he speared Stephanie's evil minion to the ground, knocking the wind out of the other man. Ambrose quickly grabbed the other man's wrist where the tattoo. gouged the fork into the skin around the tattoo of the mystery suitor. The groom let out a wailing shriek as Dean held him to the ground gouging that tattoo off the man's skin. Blood began to stain everything from the table cloth that had fallen off the altar when Dean had attacked the groom to the blood just pooling on the deck of the ship.

In the background, all Dean could hear was white noise as the audience was shouting in horror at the crazy man with the fork attacking the Princess's soon to be husband. Sonia though stood in the middle of aisle with that same empty stare as she examined the scene in front of her.

With one final gouge using the fork, Dean grabbed the piece of loose skin and ripped it off with no care about the other man's pain. The other man rightfully deserved this pain and agony. It was sweet justice for the pain he had inflicted on him and his brothers all day today. For making them think they had lost, but in reality, they were just being played by Stephanie and this cretin.

This justice was for his brothers. This justice was for himself. Most of all, this justice was for Sonia.

The piece of skin went sailing off into the ocean and the mystery groom stood, practically hissing while grabbing his wrist to stop the pain, through the commotion of the crowd the Princess fell down to the ground in a heap of skirts from her wedding dress on the deck of the boat.

Quickly, Dean gripped the bloodied and twisted fork tightly as he pushed through the crowd to Sonia, dropping it when he reached her. Roman and Seth joined him by her side wanting to make sure the young woman was okay after experiencing one of Stephanie's spells first hand. Ambrose knelt down beside the Princess as he gathered her up in his arms, and she slowly came too. Her eyelids drifted open slowly. Her eyes were no longer empty, but the soft chocolate brown ones filled with the spirit and love Dean had come to adore.

"Dean? What's… What's going on here?" questioned the Princess as she looked around at the group of people assembled on the royal ship.

"It's a long story your highness." Dean sighed as he looked over at the destroyed wedding altar and the mystery suitor still thriving in pain. "Just know you are alright now, and I'll never let anything happen to you."

Sonia nodded still confused, but accepting Dean's limited yet sweet explanation. Roman helped pull her to her feet as Seth helped Dean to his.

"Not to break up this nice moment you're having here bro," stated Seth as he turned his attention back to the altar where Stephanie's minion stood gritting his teeth in agony while cradling his wrist, "But we still have an enemy on board."

"Yea," growled Roman in anger looking between the evil minion and his two brothers. "He hurt you and the Princess, I say we teach him a lesson. That creep almost tricked you into marrying him, Sonia."

Sonia frowned in confusion because she didn't remember agreeing to marry anyone, let alone this complete stranger. In fact, she had never seen this man...Oh wait, there was this weird image of him walking out of the ocean late at night, his eyes eerily glowing...

At that moment, the mystery suitor let out a dark chuckle that sent chills down Sonia's spin. The suitor afixed the four of them with a twisted and sadistic stare as a dark smirk crossed his face. Wild eyes focused on the trio more than the Princess as the three quickly assembled in front of the woman, they had all learned to care about, to protect her.

Slowly, the mystery man made his way toward the Shield brothers and the Princess.

"Don't you get it?" questioned the man with the crazy eyes and a big smirk. "You lost! You lost! You lost!"

Sonia frowned. "Do you know this guy? And what does he mean you lost?"

"It's sunset! It's sunset!" cried the man again mad with glee. The brothers turned toward the horizon line to see the sun was indeed setting, and they had not met the parameters of Stephanie's deal.

Roman frowned and made eye contact with Dean whose mouth was open in horror and with Seth whose eyes were wide in what could only be sheer panic. They knew what was coming as once again they felt the hot pain of their limbs becoming tails once again. A bright light encased the trio as Sonia stared at the three unsure of what exactly was happening.

Once the light had faded, the three brothers were left in their original forms looking at their tails in disappointment.

They truly had lost.

"You're… you're… you're mermen?" questioned the Princess as she knelt down next to Dean as she stared in awe at his green fin. "I thought that was all a legend that Tugboat had told me! Something that bored sailors would tell one another to pass the time! How is this possible?"

Dean looked at her, guiltily. "We made a deal with the Sea Witch to become a part of your world."

Sonia shook her head. "Why would you ever want to do that?"

Dean was quiet before he confessed, "Because of you. I saw you on board of your ship and thought you were the most beautiful being in and out of the sea. I wanted nothing more than to meet you."

Something clicked in Sonia's mind. "You're the one who saved me from drowning during that storm!" She carefully rested her hand on Dean's cheek. "Yours are the eyes I remember!"

Dean smiled, almost bashfully.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Sonia, we… I tried to, but every time something came up," answered Dean as the Princess sadly smiled at him. "So many, many times…"

"But you're too late! You're too late! You have to pay! Nothing is free!" cackled the mad ex-suitor as he ran haphazardly to the lovers. Sonia was thrown aside as the man grabbed Dean. The crazy man jumped into the sea, dragging along a struggling Dean. Dean cried out in pain when the man shifted his grip on his arm. The man jumped off the ship, and the two disappeared under the waves.

"DEAN!" screamed Sonia with wide eyes in alarm as the two disappeared underneath the water.

Seth's eyes were narrowed. "That's gotta be Orton. It looked like he tried to sting Dean."

Ignoring the panicking people around them, Roman nodded, and he began dragging himself to the edge of the boat with Seth following him. The two slid off the ship into the water, frantically following after the two other sea creatures.

Sonia made to follow, but she was stopped by Christian who gently grabbed her arm. "Your Majesty, you'll drown!"

"I don't care! I need to help them!"

"Sonia! This isn't your battle!" chided Edge at her as the young woman twisted trying to get loose of Christian's grip. The royal advisor finally gave up and sighed as he let her go. Once he did, the Princess began to tear at the skirts of her wedding dress ripping them apart in hopes of making it easier for what she was planning to do. Now, she just had to get passed her advisors.

"This became my battle when that creature decided to jump overboard with Dean," growled Sonia as she ripped the veil off her head and it fell to the ground with a clatter. "He saved me. Now it's my turn to save him and his brothers."

"You know she's right, Christian." Edge sighed.

Christian frowned and nodded. "Alright, just please, be careful."

Sonia nodded as she quickly engulfed them in a tight hug before running over and standing on the railing of the ship. She looked down at the ocean and turned around to see Christian and Edge smiling at her with adoration.

With that last glance and an extremely deep gulp of air, Sonia dove into the water after her beloved and his brothers in hopes of saving them from the Sea Witch.

 **Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta**

On the cliff overlooking the chasm, Stephanie faced Orton. "You imbecile! Why did you bring this one to me? I wanted Rollins!" Stephanie said, her voice cracking in anger. "What am I supposed to do with this fool?"

Randy, now fully transformed back into a stingray, stood his ground. He tightened his tail's grip around Dean's arm, positioning the poisoned barb closer to his heart. "You didn't say which one you wanted. I grabbed the closest one. If you wanted Rollins, you should've said." Then under his breathe, he mumbled, "I don't know why you and Hunter want to bother with him."

Stephanie's eyes flashed red as her tentacles rose in the water. "That merman has an affinity for magic. He would make the perfect successor! But I don't expect _you_ of all people to understand."

She idly fiddled with the amulet around her neck. "Magic is a mysterious entity. Not everyone can learn how to use it. No one can use magic of noteable worth unless they have something to augment their powers; otherwise, they're stuck with worthless white magic. Trust me. I'm not one who's impressed with parlor tricks."

Randy rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry, Stephanie, but I don't care. What do you want me to do with him?"

Stephanie sighed. "Well, I don't want him. Why don't you just take care of him?"

Randy frowned. "Doesn't Hunter want him for something?"

Stephanie sighed dramatically. "Do you honestly think I give a royal f-"

Her sentence was cut short by Roman and Seth slamming into her from behind. She flew forward before she regained her composure. The two saw Dean's predicament and instantly swam forward to help their brother. Roman began trying to pull Randy away from his brother. But Randy was so slippery and evasive, so snakelike and cunning. To make matters worse, the Sea Witch's two eels added themselves to the fray, wrapping themselves around Roman's arms and trying to pull him away.

Seth, on the other hand, found himself rather tied up. Stephanie's tentacles wrapped around his tail and arms.

"Oh, I haven't forgotten about you, my sweetheart. You owe something to your dear Aunty Stephanie! Remember nothing is ever free! Now pay up, sweetie!"

Seth shook his head frantically. "No! You can't have it!"

Stephanie cackled. "I'll get my way even if you deny me! You'll be by my side for all eternity!" She ran one of her hands down Seth's chest. "And if I am not satisfied by you...I suppose I can always consume your soul and let your lifeless corpse continue to serve me."

Seth shuddered. "No, please!"

Stephanie smirked. "Oh my darling, a deal's a deal. Nothing is free."

Her eyes glowed red and the necklace she wore also lit up in the same crimson glow. Seth screamed as his brown eyes began to cloud over with black.

"SETH!" Dean cried out.

Roman's eyes narrowed and he instantly turned around to see that the Sea Witch had Seth in her clutches. "Seth!" The big merman's eyes widened in surprise when the barb of Randy's tail pierced him in the shoulder. He cursed when the white hot pain ebbed through the wound, radiating through his body.

"ROME! You freaking creampuff!" Dean yelled as he grabbed a sharp stone off the the ground and stabbed Orton in the base of his tail, repeatedly. Roman cried out in pain as the action jostled the barb that was embedded in his shoulder and caused the release of more venom. With one final cry, Dean severed the tail from Orton completely.

Orton screeched in agony as he withered through the water away from the brothers and Stephanie. One of the eels quickly grabbed Dean.

Roman blindly reached up and yanked the barb out of his shoulder, throwing it away from him. He couldn't see clearly and his head was fuzzy from the repeated stings.

Sonia, who was hovering nearby after jumping overboard from the ship, felt her heart sink. How was she supposed to help the brothers? She didn't have magic or even a weapon. This was all out of her realm of expertise. Not to mention, she had a very limited amount of time before she needed to resurface to grab another gulp of air. But then again, maybe she could apply what she learned with the mystery suitor to the Sea Witch. Dean broke the enthrall by destroying the tatoo; if she could find what supplied the Witch's power, maybe she could stop the Witch. Just as she was about to swim back up to the surface, she saw the barbed tail of her almost suitor come flying past her; quickly, she swam after it.

Seth screamed again as he felt his body grow cold, and he slowly stopped fighting against Stephanie's grip. His empty black eyes stared mournfully at the Sea Witch. She was close!

"Come on, sweetie! I know you're still fighting inside. Don't fight me. Give up. Give yourself to me fully." She gently stroked a finger down his face.

Seth's brow furrowed in some kind of unseen pain, but soon his face smoothed, and he relaxed.

"YES!" Stephanie cackled.

Her necklace continued to glow crimson red and the glow began to encompass Seth. She began to cackle as Seth's hair began to fade in color, like she was sucking the very life out of him.

However in the middle of the spell, the necklace around her throat was pulled taught, and its clasp shattered. Sonia swam away from the Sea Witch, grasping the amulet in her right hand and fleeing from the swaying tentacles. She dropped the amulet and swiftly stabbed it with the venomous barbed tail she had retrieved. The Sea Witch shrieked and clutched at her heart.

The amulet, which was made out of the same leather as the Necronomicon, began to shrivel up as it reacted violently to the introduction of the venom. Sonia stabbed the amulet several more times before it disintegrated. Sonia dropped the tail in shock before she made eye contact with Dean and began swimming to the surface. The merman hadn't even realized the young woman had followed them under the sea, but right now he was beyond thankful she had. She had saved Seth from the fate of the deal.

The Sea Witch screamed as she felt all the power from the amulet flee from her. She crumpled, bending at the waist and holding her head in her hands.

The eels immediately released their holds on Roman and Dean. They began writhing, twirling around each other, and they were encompassed in a white light as was the Sea Witch.

Seth blinked as he felt the cold leave his body. He looked back at his brothers; his brown eyes were wide with disorientation, and he quickly swam over to them. He carefully supported Roman who was still in a lot of pain from the stings.

Dean reached out and grabbed some of Seth's hair on the right side of Seth's head, which had turned blonde from the spell. He raised his eyebrows but made no comment. He was just happy to see that it was his brother looking back at him and not a soulless sellout version of the merman. He couldn't find the words to tell this to Seth, so he just pulled him and Roman in for a hug.

The hug ended when Roman gasped in pain, and Dean flashed him an apologetic smile. The three watched as the light around the eels faded, and in the place of the sickly-looking yellow eyed creatures were two beautiful mermaids.

Brie touched her face and laughed. Nikki reached out and grabbed her sister's hands. The two spun around, gleefully.

"The Bella Twins!" Seth said in shock. "Brie and Nikki? They said you both died years ago…"

"Not dead…" Brie said, trailing off. She didn't want to implicate her sister by placing blame on her.

As the two slowed to a stop, Nikki shook her head. "I was stupid, and I made the worst mistake of my life."

Roman frowned in sympathy. "You made a deal with _her_."

Brie rested her head on her sister's shoulder. "You were tricked. It wasn't your fault."

"What did you do?" A voice cracked with an unidentifiable emotion. "My dark magic is gone! All I have is worthless white magic!"

The brothers and the twins turned to see Stephanie glaring at them. Her tentacles were gone; in their place was a simple tail in a royal purple color. Her eyes were back to a lovely blue color, and her skin was back to its original tanned color. She looked distraught.

"You're better off this way," Seth said carefully.

Brie nodded. "Stephanie, your dark magic was killing your soul. You're not a bad person. Look, all the contracts are broken now, so everyone who was affected can move on... And you don't deserve to be miserable."

Stephanie shook her head, frantically. "You don't understand! I can never reverse the spell on Shawn Michaels if I don't have dark magic! And if I don't get Hunter's best friend back, he won't love me again! I need him to love me!"

Dean whispered to Seth and Roman, "Who the heck is Shawn Michaels?" as the duo shrugged in uncertainty at their brother.

Brie hesitated. "Stephanie, you don't need Hunter's love. He's not good for you."

Stephanie shook her head, miserably. "I'm the one that doesn't deserve him. I made the mistake of granting Shawn's wish. It's my fault."

Brie frowned. "My husband and the Atlanteans he worked with were privy to a lot of information about Hunter and his regime...it's one of the reasons Hunter had him executed. I think you should know something he found out... Hunter murdered your father. Your father never trusted Hunter because he knew he was manipulative. He would have never given him his blessing, and he would never be king without that. So he poisoned your father and lied about getting King McMahon's blessing. Hunter killed your father in cold blood and lied to you about it."

Stephanie looked at Brie in shock. "He killed my father?"

"I'm sorry I had to break the news to you this way."

"I always trusted him! I gave him the world and… I have no one now"

Brie and Nikki cautiously swam forward and hugged the former corrupted witch. Brie whispered, soothingly, "Shh, you have us still."

Taking that as their cue to leave, the brothers began ascending to the surface with Seth still steadying Roman. It was time to meet up with the princess and thank her for what she had managed to accomplish.

 **Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta**

Sonia broke the surface of the water in great fashion as she let her head fly back. She began panting in hopes of getting several deep breaths of air in order to refresh her lungs of the element they craved. Her eyes burned from the sea salt, but it had been worth it to save Dean and his brothers.

Although, it seemed there was already another problem on the horizon.

"So," grumbled a voice Sonia didn't recognize as she turned to see yet another horrifying creature pointing a trident right at the royal ship, "This must be the little human Princess that that lunatic Ambrose fell in love with."

His eyes were black with no love behind them and he had the same purple skin the Sea Witch had. This creature looked like he was a twisted combination of merman and stingray.

"What do you say, I destroy this ship and everyone you love on it, Princess?" questioned the creature, "Unless you tell me where those beloved Shield brothers are?"

Sonia shook her head unsure of what to do. She had no idea what this thing was or why it wanted Dean, Roman and Seth. But the young woman knew she had to do something or all those innocent people on the royal ship would die because of this crazy monster.

"You've got 5 seconds, Princess," taunted the creature, "5… 4… 3… 2…"

"Hey Big Nose! You looking for us!" shouted Dean as he surfaced and swam over to Sonia. Seth was still supporting Roman who looked like he was in a great deal of pain from what the stingray had done to him. "You found us, so what do you want?"

"You know exactly what I want, Ambrose," chided Hunter. "You three have broken the Atleten laws, so you know what that means, you and your pathetic brothers are forced to join my inner guard for the rest of your miserable lives. So I have come to collect you since my embarrassment of a wife couldn't get the job done. You know what they say? If you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself. But first, I'll destroy this ship since you know how I feel about humans, and you are invited to watch, your royal highness!"

"Get away from my people, you monster!" screamed Sonia as she swam over towards the ship. Sure, she was exhausted from just dealing with that crazy Sea Witch, but if she had to fight this nutjob too to have her true love and keep her friends, her brothers, then she'd do it. She'd fight til the end of time if she had to in order to get her happy ending with Dean.

"Monster?!" cackled the creature. "Sweetheart, you don't know what you're going up against. I am the King of Kings, the Ruler of the Seven Seas!"

Quickly, the creature dove underneath the water.

"Where'd he go?" shouted Dean in suspicion. "Everyone keep alert! Sonia stay close to me!"

But just as the merman said that did the Princess feel a force on her leg yanking her down beneath the waves.

"DEAN, HELP!"

And with that the Princess disappeared into the ocean.

"I'm going after her. You two stay here! After what we just went through with Stephanie, you two aren't strong enough to handle Hunter right now in your current conditions," explained Dean. "I almost lost her once today. I am **NOT** losing her again especially to a low life like Hunter."

"But Dean-" Seth tried to argue as he continued to support Roman who was grabbing his shoulder in pain.

"No buts," answered Ambrose. "Go to the cove where we first met the Princess, I'll meet you there with her! We'll figure this out then. Right now, I have to go save the woman I love!

With that, Dean dove under the waves trying to catch up with Hunter, "I'm coming Sonia!"

The creature was dragging the Princess down into the bottoms of the ocean as the young woman tried to fight against him. Sonia knew as her lungs began to fill with water she was going to die right here staring up at the world above. She was never going to get to tell Dean she loved him, she wasn't going to get to kiss him, and she wasn't going to be able to call Seth and Roman her family to their faces. No, she was doomed as she let everything fade to black. Her head lulled back letting the unconsciousness power over her.

"Oh," smirked Hunter, "This is too sweet, the little Princess is already unconscious and almost dead. Will poor old Dean Ambrose come save his girl? But he can't win! She tried to steal you boys away from me, so she needs to die for the sins she committed against the throne of Atlantis! An eye for an eye and this is that! No one can rule the kingdom but me; those stupid brothers will be my own personal slaves for all of eternity!"

At this point in Hunter's evil speech, several pieces of coral were thrown at the sea king knocking the crown off his head and shattering it into millions of pieces on the ocean floor.

"Let her go!" growled Dean who was tossing the coral up and down in his hands as he was wearing a face of rage and annoyance. "I believe you have someone I care about and I want her back, **NOW** Hunter."

"Oh Ambrose, you want your little princess? Well, you'll have to go and get her!" said Triple H as he let Sonia slip from his grasp causing her to fall even further down into the dark ocean water, unconscious. "Pick one Ambrose, you can't save your precious princess and fight me whichever you chose you are going to lose in the end!"

Without a second glance at Hunter, Dean swam after Sonia. After finally catching up to her, Ambrose grabbed her bridal style in his arms and cradled her close to his body. As fast his tail could carry him, he pushed towards the surface. He'd leave the battle with Hunter for another day,

In the distance, he heard a thunderous "HUNTER" screamed as he kept swimming toward the surface. He had to get the Princess to the world above if she was going to live.


	19. The Trident

**Caylender's AN:** Lunatic and Skittlez, thanks for your continued to support; we appreciate the reviews. In celebration of a ppv and for Halloween, here's a treat!

 **Disclaimer:** Nope. ;)

* * *

Chapter 18: The Trident

"HUNTER!" Stephanie screamed as she approached the merman to whom she had willingly given her heart.

Hunter stopped his pursuit of the other two Shield brothers, turning around to see Stephanie swimming towards him. However, this was not Stephanie the Sea Witch as he had become accustomed to seeing, but rather the Stephanie he remembered from years ago - the innocent Princess who just wanted to help her kingdom. "What kind of witchcraft is this? I know better than anyone your true self is of a hideous hag. Is this some kind of illusion?" Hunter scoffed. "Appearing to be young and beautiful won't cause me to take you back."

Stephanie frowned and defiantly stated, "I wear no illusion."

Hunter narrowed his eyes. "I know you are a treacherous hag, but lying is unbecoming, even for someone as low as you." He expected a denial or a hurled insult, but he was surprised with her response.

Stephanie threw her head back and laughed, like Hunter had just shared his favorite joke with her, Well, maybe in a way, he did. She slowly focused again on Hunter, looking into his cold eyes. "Lying is unbecoming?" She laughed again; her fingers ghosted over her mouth as though she was hiding a smile. The joke would only become more funny with repetition. "Lying is unbecoming!"

Hunter shifter his grip on his trusty trident. He didn't like the vibe he was getting from Stephanie. Sure the past ten years, she gave off the impression of insanity more and more, but he had always felt that he had the upper hand on her. He could always manipulate her by using her undying devotion for him to his advantage; he was the ultimate puppet master with his oh-so-pathetic marionette. Hunter wisely chose to change the subject. "If you will excuse me, I need to clean up the mess _you_ made."

Stephanie grinned at him and tilted her head, playfully. "I made a mess?"

Hunter frowned. He was not in the mood for games. "I thought we were on the same page. I let you borrow Randy for your plan to get the Shield once and for all; is that not true?"

"Oh, that is very true."

Hunter scowled. "And are you aware they are currently swimming away?"

Stephanie sighed as if the matter being discussed was miles beneath her. "I am very aware...Reigns is injured; your little friend Orton stabbed him - quite the gruesome affair. He seemed to come out of the fight worse for wear if you are curious. Ambrose is fine; I'm sure he had found his Princess, and they will be happy for quite some time. But you really do not personally care for those two, isn't that so? You really only care about Rollins. Why is that? Do you see a little of yourself in him? A schemer?"

Closing his eyes to try to stop himself from snapping his wife's neck, he practically growled out, "That is none of your business."

"You should know, Hunter, the two of you are very different."

Hunter's trident began to crackle with energy. "He will be my protege. Every king needs a successor."

Stephanie snorted. "How long will that last? Just until you lay eyes on the next perfect candidate? It does not matter if you find them."

Hunter growled. "I will find them; mark my words, and it is true they will be immensely more easy to control after Ambrose's little Princess dies. They will be devastated and malleable. Most important, my dear wife, is my reputation. How would I look if they broke my laws and remained unpunished?"

"Oh, trust me, my dear husband. I know your _reputation_ very well. And soon everyone will know it as well."

"What-"

"The reputation of a liar! Of a manipulator! Of a murderer!" Stephanie screamed. "You are not the real ruler of Atlantis! You killed my father!"

Hunter thrust his trident at his wife and she gasped in surprise when bolt of vivid green light shot out of the end and hit her in the abdomen. "Goodbye, my beloved. I will not miss you." Hunter turned around and began swimming in the direction of the cove.

"Oh but we are not finished with our conversation, sweetheart," Stephanie whispered in his ear. She thrust the stone-tipped dagger towards Hunter's neck.

With the tip of the dagger just managing to nick the side of his neck, he deflect the weapon with his trident, Hunter spun back around and pushed the Sea Witch back. He quickly shot another bolt of green at her, which she managed to dodge.

Stephanie held her abdomen and smiled at Hunter. "Tell me. Was there ever a time you actually loved me? Or was I always a means to the end?"

Hunter laughed. "I thought you were a pretty little thing in the beginning, a nice trophy befitting of me. But while you had your uses, you are really more trouble than you're worth."

The words stung, but she had guessed as much. She held out the hand that wasn't pressed against her wound and a white beam of light shot out of her palm and narrowly missed the dastardly King of Kings.

Hunter grinned. "That's what changed in you! You don't have your powerful magic anymore! Do you really expect to kill me with _white magic_? What are you going to do? Tickle me to death?"

Stephanie began chanting under her breath, focusing her power on the trident. The metal began to heat up.

Hunter screamed but didn't drop the trident. He rushed towards the reformed Sea Witch and grabbed her throat with one hand. He squeezed as tightly as he could.

Stephanie struggled but had to drop the spell since she couldn't chant to carry it on.

"Now, die." He closed off her throat entirely, but he let go when he felt a piercing pain in his abdomen. He looked down to see the stone-tipped dagger embedded in him.

Stephanie swam backwards and breathed in heavily. That was close. She was beginning to regret not allowing Brie and Nikki to help her. She shot more beams of white light to the ocean floor, causing tendrils of seaweed to spring up and wrap themselves around Hunter's arms. She began to prepare a spell.

Hunter yelled as he broke the seaweed and charged the mermaid, who managed to catch the weapon; however, she didn't see the end of his tail until it was too late and it embedded the barbed end into her chest. He might not be venomous like Orton was, but he could still pack a punch. Stephanie screamed in agony while Hunter laughed at her misfortune.

It served the bitch right. She was the one who cursed him with this form, so she should not have forgotten his most deadly feature. What he didn't expect was for his wife to snatch out the dagger from his abdomen and use it to slice through the end of his tail. He began howling in pain as his tail bled profusely. He tried to staunch the flow, holding onto the severed tail.

Stephanie began to throw out words, beginning a chant. This was her last resort. But it was difficult for her to say the words when her body was in so much pain. She doubted she could summon enough power to use the spell properly, but two other voices joined hers, helping her finish the chant and adding power to the spell. Brie grabbed on of her arms while Nikki grabbed the other, helping support the injured mermaid.

"Now," Stephanie managed to say. "You will be judged by the same weapon that rained down unjust punishment on so many innocents."

The trident ripped out of Hunter's hands and stabbed him, embedding itself deep into his chest, and it shone with an eerie green light, ripping the King of Kings into a thousand pieces.

Stephanie swam over with the Bellas' aid and picked up the weapon. Her eyes sparkled with a mixture of unshed tears. She ripped the barb out of her chest, allowing Brie to heal her wound.

"Ladies, you have learned well through all these years. You have my gratitude, but you don't owe me anything. You are completely free to go."

Nikki looked at Brie. "We know, but we also know you - the real you. We'll be by your side, your Majesty."

Brie looked Stephanie in the eyes. "You don't know how long I've wanted him to pay for what he did to my husband. Bryan can finally rest well, knowing he's been avenged. I couldn't have achieved that without you. I want to help you get what's rightfully yours."

Stephanie smiled. "In that case, ladies, we have a Kingdom to reclaim."


	20. Part of Your World Part I

**Captain AN: WE'RE ALMOST DONE! WE'RE ALMOST DONE! HURRAH!**

 **Chapter 19: Part of Your World Part I**

The second they broke the surface Sonia's head fell to the side as Dean swam as fast as his fins could carry him to the shore. He steadily pushed onto the shore where Seth and Roman were waiting for him. It seemed Seth was applying what looked to be seaweed to Roman's arm in order to subdue the pain. Dean silently prayed after this traumatic experience the Princess was alive and his brothers were both alright.

The merman gently set the Princess down on the beach as he examined her to make sure she was alright. Roman and Seth watched idly as Dean began to pound his hands on the young woman's chest in hopes she would wake and he could feel her heart beat once again.

"Please," Dean muttered while pressing his hands over her heart over and over again. "I don't want to lose her just after I found her. I… I love her."

"Don't leave us, Sonia," Seth stated quietly as Roman nodded along silently.

"Don't go little sister," Roman softly added just loud enough for Seth to hear him.

With a final attempt to get Sonia to show life, Dean thrust his hands onto her chest in exasperation and defeat as he turned towards his brothers not wanting to showcase his tears, but letting them leak out as Roman and Seth came closer to their middle brother.

"She, uh, she didn't make it," Dean said as they approached him. "We should go… I think I hear other humans coming. We should get going…"

"Dean, where are we going to go?" asked Seth. "Sure Sonia saved Stephanie and broke all her spells, but Hunter wants our heads on a platter. There is nowhere in the ocean to swim to now. There is nothing we can do."

"We'll figure something out," Roman said clamping a hand on his brother's shoulders before giving the beach one last longing look craving to be human once more. "We can't go back to Atlantis."

"You… you could stay here," croaked a voice from behind them followed by a wet cough.

Quickly, the brothers whirled around to see the Princess lying with her elbows propping her up in the sand. Her wet hair was cascading down her back and her dress was torn causing it to look more like a sundress than the evening wedding gown it once was.

"Princess!" cried the brothers as they swam up beside Sonia on the beach quickly embracing her in hugs.

"You saved me, but that creature got away didn't it? You can't go back down there. It will kill you," Sonia tried to reason with them. "Please stay with me. I know you're not human, but we'll figure something out. Plus I… I love you, Dean."

Dean grinned widely. "I love you too, Sonia."

The princess and merman moved closer to each other before enveloping each other in a kiss. It was one of the kisses that would stop time, cause fireworks and was truly a sign of the true love between two people.

Gagging noises could be heard in the background as Roman and Seth tried not to hurl from the mushy scene in front of them.

"About damn time," muttered a voice causing the Princess and the merman to break away immediately. "You owe me fifty bucks, Christian."


	21. Part of Your World Part II

**Captain's AN: So here we are, the last two chapters of this story. It's hard to believe this baby has been in the works since January and now it's November and we finally finished it off. On behalf of caylendar and myself, I want to thank everyone who has followed, favorited and reviewed. I hope as many of you loved this story as much as we did (even though at times we became pretty sick of the sea puns - oh, who am I kidding? we loved them!). Thank you for taking the time to review, read and give feedback.**

 **This project started as a joke because my job didn't have forks and now it grew into a full blown story. Who would have guessed? Anyway, I just want to say a big thank you to caylendar. She is the best writer I know and it has been my honor to co-write this story with her.**

 **Also if you were wondering where we got the chapter titles from, they are from The Little Mermaid Musical on Broadway. Fun fact.**

 **As for what's next for the two of us, caylendar has some great projects in the works - trust me, would I lie to you people? As for me, I'm going to attempt to write a Shield Christmas fic for December because those things are my favorite, while aside from H/C Shield and reunion stories.**

 **Anyway, without further adieu... here are the last TWO chapters of Part of Your World.**

 **Chapter 20: Part of Your World Part II**

"You guys have the worst timing," complained the princess as she grabbed Dean's hand taking it into hers. "But I have an announcement, a royal decree if you will; one that I have full control over, thank you very much. I want you to hear, royal advisors, I have decided on a suitor. This suitor is a man who will swim the depths of the ocean and back for me; he thinks with his heart and not his brain, but he puts his family above everything else, and I will always love him and his brothers for that exact reason. Edge, Christian, I have chosen this man, Dean Ambrose as my suitor."

Edge frowned deeply at the two lovers. "Princess, I know you love him, but he's a merman and you're human. You are both from different worlds. You can't be part of each other's worlds. There's no way."

"Oh Edge," complained Christian as he rolled his eyes dramatically. "Quit being such a Debbie Downer. You know as well I do that they can be together."

"We can?" questioned Dean and Sonia in unison with hope in their eyes.

"Yes, and your brothers can join you here on the surface," continued Christian with a smile on his face.

"We can?" questioned Seth and Roman in unison immediately looking confused.

"But Stephanie only has white magic now! No other merperson in all of Atlantis has her power!" Seth tried to reason out loud while his brothers looked on nodding their heads in agreement with him.

"Oh please, you'd think that Sea Cow was the only one who knew magic in all of Atlantis, did you? Now that Stephanie the Sea Hag is no longer a problem and our contract is broken the two of us have our powers back," Christian explained as him and Edge stood by each other wearing identical smirks.

Edge added, "Transformation magic is completely safe _if_ you have someone to anchor you. We can perform the spell _together_."

"Hold on a second," exclaimed Seth as he stared at the the Princess's royal advisors. "You're the two Stephanie was talking about when she said she performed the same spell years ago on two others at the same time? Why didn't I see this earlier? How did I miss this?"

Sonia let out a slight chuckle at Seth's perturbed state. "You can't win 'em all, Seth. I stopped trying to reason with these two long, long ago."

"Your correct, Mr. Rollins," Edge answered as he turned toward Sonia.

"If you had the power of transformation magic, why didn't you change yourselves? Why go to Stephanie?"

Edge and Christian exchanged looks that clearly said they were unsure how much they wanted to share. Christian said, "It's a long story…"

"She helped me out by healing an injury that would've killed me eventually; I was paralyzed essentially... And as a price, we had to surrender our status as sea dwellers and our magic."

Christian looked guilty. "Our magic can't function solo… Since I couldn't perform the spells to heal Edge on my own, I took him to the Sea Witch. I didn't want to loose my best friend."

Edge threw an arm around Christian's shoulders. "You saved my life, and that's all that matters."

Christian smiled. It was evident that even though he had done what was necessary to save Edge, he still blamed himself for not being powerful enough to help Edge himself and essentially indebting them to the Sea Witch.

Edge turned back to the brothers and Sonia. "Now back to the matter at hand, Princess, you have been our charge for a very long time. We knew you were the one who would set things right under the ocean. Your mother told us so much when we joined the surface world. Your father took us in when we arrived here. Before you were born, your mother told us about how she knew her daughter was going to save a trio of warriors from the horrors of the ocean and set a kingdom free. Christian and I hoped it was going to be Atlantis, but we couldn't have your parents knowing that. So, it was a matter of time as we waited for you to grow up and fulfill your destiny. I'll be honest until these three idiots showed up, we had lost all hope of you saving anyone, but when they did, we immediately knew they were mermen from Atlantis and going to help you achieve your destiny."

"We owe you three," continued on Christian as he placed a hand on Edge's shoulder. "We couldn't have accomplished any of this without you. You can have anything you wish for… fame, money, the kingdom of Atlantis?"

"So boys, what will it be," questioned Edge as he cracked his knuckles eager to try out his freshly returned powers before wiggling his fingers. "Let's see what these babies can do after all this time!"

The mermen looked at each other and then looked at the Princess as she looked down at the ground unsure what they were going to decide. In her gut, the Princess did not want to keep the brothers from the sea; they loved it just as much as she. But another part of her wanted so desperately for them to stay with her on the surface. However, this was not her decision and she would accept whatever they choose as their reward. The brothers exchanged a very similar look before turning back toward Edge and Christian.

"We'd like to stay with the Princess," announced Dean causing Sonia's head to snap up in surprise. "Make us human? Allow us to live on the surface with her?"

"But what about Hunter and the kingdom under the sea," interjected Sonia not wanting to let the evil dictator be able to rule. "I can't let you give up everything for me. You need to be there with your people to overthrow his anarchy."

"Actually, I think we have that problem solved," Christian spoke up, and he recounted how his undersea sources told him how Stephanie and the Bella Twins ended Hunter's reign of terror as Dean had been busy saving Sonia from a watery grave.

"I'll be damned," stated Dean as he ran a hand threw his ragged, blonde hair.

"Heh," Seth snorted in surprise with a shrug. "Who would have guessed this would be how Stephanie reclaimed the kingdom and began to make Atlantis a utopia once again?"

"Well now that you boys are all up to date on the latest news of what's been going on under the sea, are you ready to join this young lady here on the Surface World permanently?" questioned Edge as he tapped his fingers impatiently against his forearms. "Because I'm not getting any younger, and I'd like to give our magic a try; it's been years since we've had it!"

The brothers all exchanged a look as Dean unwound his hand from Sonia's as she kissed him on the cheek. She did trust Edge and Christian, but these types of things always seemed to make the Princess nervous. The young woman stood up as the Shield brothers waited for Edge and Christian to do their magic on them as they bobbed their tails up and down in the water of ocean one last time.

"Oh," Sonia quickly added before Edge and Christian began their magic. "Can we make sure they have clothes on when they become human?"

Edge tried to interject an inappropriate comment, but Christian stepped in stopping his brother from upsetting their charge. "Yes, your highness, most certainly!"

With one dramatic tandem swoop of their hands, Edge and Christian had sparks fly from the tips of their fingers and the sparks flew straight at the mermen. The brothers were encased in a bright ball of light causing the Princess to cover her eyes from the golden beams surrounding the brothers as they gracefully rose into the sky before gently coming back down. When the Princess uncovered her eyes, she saw three humans wading through the ocean surf toward her.

Each brother wore a loose fitting dress shirt and a pair of shorts as their hair hung loosely flowing over their shoulders. Roman and Seth each stood on either side of Dean whose arms were outstretched waiting for the princess to run into them so he could embrace her.

"Go on," said Christian as he nudged Sonia in the back eager for her to get the happy ending she deserved. The royal advisor snapped his fingers causing her dress to become a short shimmering summer blue one instead of the soaked torn and tattered wedding dress rags she had been in. "You've earned it!"

Sonia smiled quickly mouthing thank you to Edge and Christian as she ran into Dean's warm embrace. His strong arms grabbed her tightly as he spun her around in the ocean surf while Roman and Seth watched on with identical smiles on their faces.

"I just love happy endings," Edge muttered as Christian handed him a hanky. "They are just always so beautiful!"

Soon as Christian turned to face the couple, his eyes became misty as well and he smiled happily at the scene. He was a romantic at heart.

"Dean did good, didn't he Seth?" questioned Roman with a smile as as he looped his arm around the other man's shoulders while smirking.

"He did great, Roman; I'd dare even say perfect."

The Shield brothers had everything they wanted now. Nothing was free. However, no one had told them good people like the Princess, who would love their brother just as much as they loved him, existed on the surface world. Sure, nothing was free, but the brothers were willing to bargain everything for the Princess, Dean's future wife, Roman and Seth's honorary sister, and they had.

After all this time, Dean twirled Sonia around as her hands gently touched his face while she kissed him. Seth and Roman watched the sunset behind the happy couple knowing this wasn't the ending, but just the beginning of their adventure together as a family.

"So Princess, did you get everything you wished for?" questioned Dean as he set her down letting the waves wash over thier bare legs. "Because I most certainly did."

"Yes and I got something more too," Sonia said leaning back into Dean.

As Sonia leaned her head onto Dean's shoulder and her body further into his, the former merman gave the Princess an odd look and cocked an eyebrow in confusion. "And what's that?"

A sassy smirk crossed the Princess's face as she leaned into kiss Dean once more whispering into his ear, "I get to be **part of your world**."


	22. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"And the Princess and Dean Ambrose lived happily ever after," the little girl's uncle said as her eyes began to drop signifying she was more sleepy than she had been letting on.

"But what about the Bellas? And the other suitors? And Roman and Seth? And Edge and Christian? And what about Stephanie? What happened to the kingdom of Atlantis? Did they all live happily ever after too?" piped up the sleepy girl.

Her other uncle smiled down at her while leaning into tuck her into bed. "Edge and Christian returned to the sea and helped rebuild the kingdom of Atlantis. Of course, Sonia was extremely sad to see them return to their home, but every year (and sometimes randomly), they would come to visit her bearing gifts and news from the underwater kingdom. It just so happened the last time Edge and Christian had swam to Excalibur, the now Queen and King had had a baby, a little girl, a child born of both land and sea, which had never been done before. Because of this child a new legend was written, but that dear child, is a story for another time…"

"The Bellas and Stephanie had a happy ending too," her younger uncle spoke from his side of the bed. "Brie and Nikki started to practice their new found ability to wield magic under the tutelage of Stephanie, who taught the sisters some of the most powerful white magic possible. And of course, their bond of sisterhood only made their magic more powerful and safer."

"Brie was able to use that magic to get revenge on Prince John Cena for having such terrible commitment issues when it came to proposing marriage to her sister. The mermaid cast a spell on him changing him from a human of impressive stature into a lowly seahorse, and as everyone knows, a male seahorse is the one who gives birth to all the children. In Brie's eyes this was some sweet justice for Nikki…"

"Speaking of Nikki, she finally did get that marriage proposal she desperately wanted, of course not from John Cena, but from a dolphin named Ziggler who had returned to the sea after living on the surface world world for quite some time as a Prince who went by the name of Dolph. And together their happiness blossomed thousands of undersea gardens."

The older uncle once again spoke as the little girl stifled another yawn, "No one really knows what happened to Prince CM Punk. He just disappeared from both kingdoms completely and became completely irrelevant unless someone was telling the tale of how Queen Sonia met King Dean."

The younger uncle, who took this opportunity to play with a small strand of blonde hair, looked at the little girl and said, "The now reformed Sea Witch took back her kingdom with the help of the Bella Twins, but as any person both under the sea or on land knows, Rome wasn't built in a day and reclaiming a kingdom that once feared you isn't an easy task either. But slowly, the merpeople of Atlantis saw that Stephanie had reformed her ways and was once again the mermaid they had once loved; of course, it helped that she had the Bella Twins nearby to make sure she never strayed too far away from white magic. But she had to redo many of the evil deeds she had done and atone for her sins."

"And one of those deeds," pipped up the older uncle, "was giving Enzo Amore back his tongue which Stephanie was able to do with a bit of help from her white magic."

"As for Dean's brothers, Roman and Seth, they each took joy in becoming a part of the royal court by replacing Christian and Edge in the role of royal advisors to the newly crowned King and Queen. Roman became the young Queen's closet friend and confidant as she trusted him with everything. While Seth became the same to Dean. Seth even took up playing music with the New Day from time to time too. They also helped out Dean and Sonia's daughter, the royal princess, every now again too."

"So like we said, everyone in the kingdom both on land and under the sea lived happily ever after. Now my dear, I think it's time for someone to go to sleep," stated the younger uncle as he tucked the quilts on her bed in around her.

The little girl yawned once more while her eyes continued to droop as she snuggled into her pillow as the two uncles got up and walked over to the door getting ready to shut off the light in the bedroom.

"Will you come over tomorrow and tell it to me again, please?"

"But I thought you said we didn't know any good fairy tales?" teased her older uncle as the younger one let out a snort.

"Just because Uncle Seth makes me do cartwheels all the time, Uncle Roman, doesn't mean I don't think the two of you can't tell a good fairy tale every now and again. Plus that was one of the best stories I've heard in a long time. It's like you lived it. Mommy and Daddy never tell me stories like that!"

The two men exchanged a knowing smirk before taking their cue to leave.

"Of course, sweetheart," said one of her uncles smiling while flicking off the light. "We'll always be part of your world…"

The End.


End file.
